Illiam

by Mel Braxton

  She trudged through the plant life, scanning her path with her lenses, thankful for its warnings as to which plants and insects she needed to avoid.

  Elysa had to walk carefully to keep from tripping over wild vines and branches. This trek was untamed compared to any path she’d hiked on vacation, and her pace was much slower than she’d expected.

  Her experience with plantlife had been limited to those developed out of necessity, like hydroponics grown for food and air quality. They were simple, small plants that were quick to grow, nutritious to eat, and easy to replace.

  But there were trees here. Bushes, vines, fungi, and moss. Insects buzzed and small animals scurried. This was an ecosystem capable of maintaining life without human interference.

  Every trip she had ever taken planetside now seemed domestic compared to 3XCT. Nothing here grew because of necessity or design. This forest existed because it wanted to be alive.

  Elysa could almost feel the pulsing need for that life surrounding her.

  …maybe it would be ok if I was stuck here…

  She shivered. No. It wouldn’t be okay to stay here. Sure, the planet was beautiful, but she needed to go on, because...

  Because she needed to see Ulani again.

  Ulani. It ached to think of her. They’d been already been separated for months before Elysa had begun this journey.

  She sighed again, trying to push her frustration aside, but it only made her head throb.

  By now, the roar of water was undeniable.

  Elysa crested a hill to see a shallow river below. Fortunately, it’d only taken several minutes to get here. She wouldn’t have to carry the water far.

  The stream didn’t flow straight down like engineered ones but took unnecessary turns and corners. Like everything about this planet, it was unrestrained, untamed.

  She’d barely reached the water’s edge when she heard a rustle of leaves. She looked across the river to discover an animal stepping from the forest.

  It eyed her lazily before turning to drink from the river. It was nothing like the other animals she’d seen on this planet.

  Her lenses tagged the animal as “Predatory, likely dangerous.” But even without their assistance, her instincts identified the animal as a threat.

  He—for she could see it was male—had to weigh three, maybe four times what Elysa did. His weight was held up by eight different legs—two legs from each shoulder and hip joint. Even standing on all eight legs, the creature was as tall as her chest.

  The animal’s appearance and mannerisms reminded her vaguely of a gigantic cat. A jaguar, perhaps, complete with spots, but that was a poor comparison. Not only was he much too large to be a jaguar, but his coloring was off. He was spotted with blues and purples.

  She looked from his claws to his lapping tongue. She wondered what kind of teeth it hid within its mouth. She felt for the pistol at her waist but questioned what it could do other than making the cat angry. Maybe slow it down.

  Fortunately, it chose to ignore her while it drank.

  Elysa knew she should return to her ship, she could come back in the morning. But she was tired and couldn’t stand the thought of returning empty-handed.

  She opened her pack and removed the reservoir. She unfolded it as quietly as she could.

  Then she lifted the pistol, clearing the safety with a click.

  The creature looked her way, considered her gun, and lowered to his belly. He hunched on to his arms, protecting his most vulnerable flesh, and continued to drink from the water.

  They studied each other in silence. He was clearly intelligent.

  She stood, gun in one hand and reservoir in the other, and approached the water. Her heart thudded in her chest, faster than it should have been—she was on her third dose of Panacea, after all.

  “Raaahhh!”

  The alien-looking jaguar roared. He held his mouth open long enough for Elysa to confirm the beast had massive fangs.

  She should have tried to shoot it then. By landing a bullet in its exposed mouth, maybe she could’ve felled it. But instead, Elysa froze.

  It wasn’t that she minded killing the animal, but something told her that this was an animal that could be negotiated with. Her heart rate continued accelerating, and the edges of her vision grew hazy with exhaustion.

  As the jaguar closed his mouth, Elysa roared and jumped into the air, stretching her arms as high and as wide as she could reach, trying to frighten it off.

  The animal cocked its head, surprised or intrigued. Maybe hungry.

  “Ahhh!” She yelled a second time, rigid with fear and wondering what insanity had taken hold of her. She should’ve run while she had the chance.

  The creature crossed the river and approach her, but she didn’t lower her arms. He stepped in front of Elysa, his smell reminding her of wet dog.

  Still, she didn’t move, couldn’t move even if she wanted to. She stayed rigid, forcing her body to be as big and intimidating as possible.

  The jaguar inhaled, sniffing her.

  With his large, intimidating face near hers, he eyed her with large lilac-blue eyes. She met his gaze and offered him the craziest look she could manage.

  He exhaled, snorting in response.

  “I can do this all day!” she shouted at him, convincing herself it was true. At least she could pretend to die with courage.

  With a lengthy meow, the jaguar dropped to its stomach again, looking up at her, communicating that some sort of truce had been made. Elysa narrowed her eyes in confusion as they studied each other. Slowly, her fear abated.

  “I did it,” she said to herself, as she wobbled on her feet.

  But with satisfaction came exhaustion. Adrenaline had taken the last of her strength, and Elysa fought a wave of heavy fatigue.

  She understood that she needed to stay conscious, but she had been pushing herself past biological limits all day, and her body was finally done. Fight as she might, she didn’t have a choice in the matter.

  Darkness came for her, and Elysa didn’t know when she hit the ground.

  III

  It was dark when Elysa opened her eyes. This was not the sort of dark that existed in the closed confines of a space station. Nor was it the starlit-and-console lighting of her crashcouch on the Onyx.

  This was the sort of darkness that only existed on planets. But, then, where were the stars, the moons?

  Miraculously, she was unhurt. The concussion made her head throb, but all things considered, she was still breathing, and her body wasn’t broken.

  She laid upon smooth stone and heard the trickling of water. She tasted moss in the air, and the scent of loam filled her nose. Her eyes adjusted, and contrast developed in the darkness.

  She was inside a cave. The opening was only a few meters away, and she could finally see starlight piercing through the gloom. She was just deep enough to be sheltered.

  Elysa felt around her, suddenly uncertain how she ended up here. Her fingers brushed against the side of her pack, and a wave of relief flooded through her. She retrieved the coin-sized lantern within and switched it on. Her head pulsed as light-filled her eyes.

  Now that the cavern was illuminated, Elysa could see that a stream of water trickled in the back. She was alone.

  She got up slowly and walked to the mouth of the cave, where she could see that it opened to a moderate decline. The landscape before her was broad and lush. It was luminous under the watch of two moons.

  The cave was against a tall hill that stood on the edge of a valley. Looking down, she saw a river glistening in the bright moonlight. She looked past it to collect her bearings.

  There. She found the scar in the trees where the Onyx had fallen through. Her ship was nearby. Whatever had moved her hadn’t taken her far.

  A breeze brushed over her skin, and Elysa shivered, but it wasn’t from fear. She was cold and tired and worn past tolerance.

  Her body shook again, and she knew she needed to get warm. She couldn’t reach the Ony
x tonight, but there was a fire-kit and compression blanket in her pack.

  The blanket was flimsier than she had hoped, but she wrapped it around her shoulders anyway, and began to fumble with the fire-kit.

  She’d never lit a fire before—nobody would dare start a fire in space. For safety, her own kit was sealed under petroleum jelly within a vacuum bag.

  She pulled the kit from her pack and read the instructions carefully. If she could fly a starship, she could start a simple fire. At least she hoped as much.

  She left the cave to collect the small twigs and larger branches necessary for the fire and was relieved to find there were many to pick from. It was hard to know how much further she could’ve walked without stumbling from exhaustion.

  She prepared the twigs at the mouth of the cave—so the smoke could escape—and combined the two parts of the starter. She was satisfied when the twigs began to burn. She fed the fire more wooden fuel and huddled close for heat.

  Something within the flicker of the flames and the flow of heat reassured her. Despite everything, she would somehow be okay.

  She fed the fire the largest branches as she checked her pack for rations. She ate a crude meal and drank from a bag of water.

  Elysa wanted to stay awake through sunrise, an estimated few hours away. She intended to remain alert and continue feeding the fire. She could use the time to plan her next move.

  But she drifted to sleep before burning everything that she’d collected.

  —(|-|)—

  She was warm when she stirred the second time.

  No, this was better than warm. She was cozy. She felt safe in a way that she hadn’t felt since—since sharing a bed with Ulani.

  Elysa tried to go back to sleep, to return to whatever fantasy her dreaming brain had latched on to. If the warmth was part of that illusion, then she wanted to enjoy it as long as she could.

  But part of her mind was bent on survival, and she desperately needed to know where she was.

  She opened her eyes to discover she was wrapped in fur. It tickled against her eyelashes. She lifted her head to find a massive paw draped over her midsection. She was pressed between the animal and the cave’s wall.

  She looked up to see the jaws of the alien-jaguar from the river. His gigantic head rested above her own. He was fast asleep and holding her against his warm belly.

  Elysa froze. She glanced between the creature’s jaw and the paw draped over her body. In theory, she could shuffle from under the paw, jump over hm, and walk from the cave.

  But that seemed impossible without waking him.

  She looked back at the cat’s face and stiffened.

  His eyes were open, and they stared at her curiously, studiously.

  Elysa bit down on her tongue to stop the scream in her throat. If he’d wanted her dead, she wouldn’t have woken up? Right?

  Welcome.

  The word came to Elysa’s mind from somewhere, unbidden and intrusive. The word wasn’t hers.

  Welcome.

  She heard it again and looked at the cat, who continued to study her.

  Elysa swallowed.

  She knew of telepathy—there were aliens who utilized the technique and could broadcast their own thoughts onto a human. So far, she’d successfully avoided contact with such aliens.

  “Hello?” she whispered, unsure.

  He lifted his paw off her body, rolled so he was on his belly, and began to groom himself.

  Elysa sat up and leaned her back against the cave wall so she could stare at the animal more easily. He’d stopped paying attention to her.

  “I’m Elysa, who are you?” She tried again.

  You can call me Illiam.

  “Illiam. It’s very nice to meet you.”

  The creature still didn’t look at her. Instead, he stood, stretched, and walked from the cave.

  Now that her view was unblocked, her eyes stung in the full daylight. She shielded her vision and shrugged off the emergency blanket.

  The cat ran down the incline and into the jungle. Elysa got up and, forcing her complaining legs to cooperate, chased after him. She couldn’t lose Illiam. He was the first being she had contacted on 3XCT, and maybe he could help her.

  But the creature leapt down the hill, bounding faster than she could’ve imagined. Even if she were healthy, she wouldn’t have been able to keep up.

  No need to follow him, the voice continued. I’m still here. Now that I’ve released him from my direct control, he will do as animals please.

  “Your…control?” Elysa asked, stopping her chase.

  Apologies. You’re only the second human I have encountered and the first I’ve successfully talked to. Am I coming across clear?

  “I guess I can hear you—Who are you?”

  Hmmm, that is hard. Very hard.

  “Well, if you’re not the very-scary-space-jaguar, who are you?”

  That is why this is hard. That very-scary-space-jaguar is a part of me, but isn’t me. Just like everything else. Except you, of course, you are something quite different than me.

  “Try me,” Elysa pressed, turning full-circle, checking that nothing but insects were in the cave with her. “What are you?”

  I don’t think there’s a word for it. The voice began, and then a concept came to the forefront of Elysa’s mind. It was that of a vessel, a globe in shape. It was made from many things: rock and water and air. It contained many things from a hot mantel, the jungle before her, and the small bugs who scurried in the corners of the cave. It was the central nervous system for everything around her.

  “You’re the planet.” Elysa decided as the concepts dissolved in her mind. “A sentient planet.”

  Are any of your planets sentient?

  “None I know of, but the universe is a huge place.”

  Maybe I’m alone.

  “Humans once thought they were alone.”

  Hmm.

  “What about the human you met before me?”

  He wasn’t here long. By the time I understood how to communicate, he was leaving. I sent part of myself onto his ship—a mouse, I think you’d call it—but lost contact once they left my sun.

  Elysa nodded, pacing outside the cavern.

  Do you need anything? Illiam asked.

  Did she need anything? An absurd question. “Do you know anything about starships?” she finally asked. “Mine was damaged when I landed.”

  I don’t think I can help you with that. Your technology is strange to me. But I can help you in other ways, there is food and water to sustain you. The cave can provide shelter.

  “Maybe you can take me back to my ship?”

  Of course, of course. I’ll bring the aeluri back.

  “The aeluri?”

  The very-scary-space-jaguar.

  “Oh.”

  Maybe Illiam couldn’t directly help her, but she was no longer alone. And, for the first time since landing, Elysa smiled. She wondered if the planet could see her but then realized Illiam probably didn’t understand what a smile was.

  She returned to the cave and gathered her pack, and as Illiam had said, the aeluri returned. The cat lowered itself onto its stomach.

  Climb onto his back, he will take you to your ship.

  Elysa’s heart pounded at the thought, but she smiled bravely and grabbed the aeluri’s scruff. She pulled herself up and onto his back.

  She looked out at the valley for a second time. It was majestic in the daylight. A gigantic waterfall was at the far end, and a river wiggled through the center. Defiant hills stood on the opposite side of the valley, and lush blue and purple foliage gave the valley color.

  A bright, white sun rose overhead. The day was already humid and warm, more unfamiliar sensations. This untamed planet was nothing like a space station or the Onyx.

  The aeluri began to walk down the hill. She tightened her thighs around its body and threaded her fingers into its scruff.

  “I’m not hurting him, am I?” she asked.

  No.<
br />
  Elysa was rigid, unsure what to do with her body as the aeluri shifted under her, rocking her aching head. Regardless, she had to admit that it was glorious to ride such an animal. She couldn’t wait to tell Ulani about this adventure—Ulani loved her stories.

  If she ever saw Ulani again...the thought was sobering, and she grew impatient to return to the Onyx. She could fantasize about her predicament after she’d survived it.

  The Onyx entered her field of view, and the aeluri stopped. Elysa slid from the cat’s back and began walking towards her home.

  As she walked, the aeluri found a place in the sun in which to lay. He kept a lazy eye fixed on her while she approached the Onyx.

  “When you control the animals, they act differently,” she said.

  Indeed. They are independent animals when I’m not managing them, and they do as they please.

  “So, you’re a god?”

  I’m not all-powerful if that’s what you mean. I can manipulate this planet and the animals that developed on it. But I can only be so many places at once. Don’t you have multiple presences?

  “No.” Elysa frowned. Compared to this planet, she was nothing but a speck of dust.

  You have a curious existence. And...isolated. I don’t know what I would be if I wasn’t made from many different parts.

  “We—humans, my species—we live in groups. I’m not lonely…we make friends, lovers.” Her throat choked at the thought of Ulani. She’d never meant to need someone this badly.

  Are you lonely now?

  “I haven’t had much time to think about it,” Elysa said, already distracted by her starship.

  The Onyx appeared the same as it had the day before, nothing had changed, but it felt different now. The difference was the truth settling within her: the reactor was unfixable. The Onyx couldn’t fly.

  Her starship, her lifelong companion, was dead.

  And it had left her stranded.

  “Did the other human leave anything?” Elysa asked.

  Nothing. He was particular about it.

  She nodded. Of course, he hadn’t left anything. There were strict punishments for companies that left behind equipment on an undeveloped planet. But it was a shame. An exploratory vessel usually carried a spare reactor.