Escape from the Drowned Planet

by Helena Puumala

  “So when do all the insects everyone has been warning us about, show up?” she asked, to the laughter of her companions.

  “You’re in luck, actually, travelling at this time of the year,” the girl behind the counter replied, laughing along with the others. “There are a few around right now, but not the kind of clouds we get when the dry season turns to the wet season, and again when we go from wet to dry.”

  “So what season are we in now?” asked Evo, intrigued.

  “In the middle of the dry season.” The girl laughed again. “If it was the wet season you wouldn’t need to ask. You would be soaked to your skin right now.

  “Did you people just come off The Seabird?” she then asked. “I think it’s the only oceangoing ship coming in today.”

  “Yeah, that’s how we got here, ignorant as we are about everything Oasis City,” Susana said cheerfully.

  “Well, there’s a man by the name of Gerrard looking for Evo and Mea, and Mea’s mother Susana,” the young woman said, consulting some papers she had in front of her. “They’re supposed to be travelling on Captain Lomen’s ship, The Seabird.”

  “Hey, that’s us! Well, three of us.” Evo indicated his wife, mother-in-law and himself. “Did Gerrard leave us an address where we may find him?”

  “Actually, he asked us to send a runner to his place of business when you showed up,” the young lady replied. “He’ll come and pick you up himself, if you’ll be good enough to wait in the little park and outdoor cafe next to us.”

  She indicated a rather pleasant outdoor spot filled with flowers and trees, and scattered with benches, except for a central area which contained delicate tables and chairs, plus a food and drink stall. Looking at it Kati realized that the trees of the park were what she had noted while on the pier, when The Seabird’s crew had teased her about the insect life of Oasis City.

  “I’ll get an errand boy, immediately, to run word to Gerrard.”

  With that the woman hurried to the back of the booth, leaving the newcomers to stare at one another, and to shake their heads.

  “Seems a little overly formal to me,” Evo said, “to have to wait for Gerrard to come and get us. It’s not like Mea and I haven’t wandered around strange places before. Mind you, Gerrard may have been thinking of Susana’s convenience; perhaps he’s coming with transport for her.”

  “’When in Rome, do as the Romans do,’” quoth Kati with a shrug.

  “Ah, we have one of those sayings on Lamania,” said Mikal. “’In the Marola Valley, drink Marola wine; in a Garsen brewery, down the beer.’”

  “Aha, I like that,” Susana said with a wicked grin. “Something like: ‘In River City, cheat the strangers; on Sickle Island, be a friend to all’.”

  All six of them burst out laughing.

  The attendant returned to tell them that the message to Gerrard had been sent and the visitors valiantly damped down their mirth. Mikal asked the young woman about accommodations available, “especially about the Six Palms Inn, since the ship’s captain had recommended it”. She replied that no doubt The Six Palms would do; it was a respectable place with clean rooms, good baths, a restaurant and an alehouse on the premises. However, there were other places as good at similar prices, and better ones if one was willing to pay more coin. She gave Mikal directions to The Six Palms, noting that to go there they would be walking down a street that contained quite a large assortment of inns, some of them really nice. They might want to take a look at some of those before they made a decision.

  “Why don’t you wait for Gerrard with us,” Evo said, when Mikal was done at the counter. “We can ask his opinion about the inns, and maybe make plans to get together later, to talk about the other issues that you’ll have to deal with. Gerrard is a good sort as I remember him; he’s a cousin of mine and came over here to run a business left to him by a bachelor uncle on the other side of his family. He actually asked us to come over—sent me a message some time ago, he did--to work for him for a while; the message said that the business was doing well, but that he was having trouble keeping employees. Apparently people mostly work for their families in Oasis City, and those who take on jobs outside the family connections tend to bail as soon as their clan has something for them.”

  “Evo and I are always open for new experiences,” Mea said cheerfully. “So since Mother was willing to relocate with us, we thought this would be a great opportunity to do something different, far away from home.”

  “And now that we have made it across the ocean alive, we’ll get to find out how we’ll manage in these new circumstances,” Susana said, pushing the screen door open and leading them towards the park. “I’m kind of hoping that Gerrard will have something that an old lady can do, too, to help keep his business running.”

  “What business is he in, anyway?” Kati asked.

  “Weaving cloth,” Evo answered. “That soft, warm, lightweight stuff that the Northern Continent is famous for. His shop is not a big one but the looms that his uncle left him are very good ones, so the cloth he produces is of the highest quality. At least that’s what I have understood from his messages. I guess we’ll now be able to find out first-hand.”

  “That would be one of the items that Captain Lomen hauls across the ocean to the Southern Continent,” Kati said.

  “Yes,” replied Evo. “The only way for the Southerners to get it is to have it brought over by ship, since it is not possible to produce it on the Southern Continent. It, being farther from the equator is colder than the Northern Continent and the beasts that produce the fibre need to live in a hot climate to do so.”

  “Isn’t that kind of odd?” Kati asked. “A fibre that’s used to make warm clothing grows on animals that live in heat?”

  “It is,” Evo agreed. “That’s why it has only become common since The Disaster. Nobody thought of it in those days when people had all kinds of resources available, cloth of every sort imaginable. Since The Disaster we have had to become much more creative when it comes to meeting our needs, and apparently somebody thought of these beasts and their hair, started experimenting, and found gold, so to speak.

  “But I’ll let Gerrard tell you the details when he gets here; he knows all about it, whereas my knowledge is pretty limited.”

  They had reached the cafe in the middle of the little park, and since it was almost empty, they pushed two tables together so that all six of them could sit together. The stall sold drinks that they were unfamiliar with, but the young man working it was clearly used to newcomers, and was able to describe what they stocked, and to recommend his wares. Kati chose a mixture of tropical fruit juices, while Mikal and Jocan each bought a hot beverage which to her looked a lot like hot chocolate. Evo opted for a fermented grain drink which looked like a variety of non-alcoholic beer, and Mea and Susana took mugs of the same hot drink as Mikal and Jocan had chosen.

  “So this is the dry season, is it?” Susana commented, sipping her beverage, and looking around her at the pleasant surroundings. “I guess we came here at the best possible time. That’s just as well, for those of us staying here. This way, when the weather gets really miserable and the notorious insects are eating us up, at least we’ll know that there’s a time every year when things are wonderful. We won’t be quite so tempted to jump on the first available ship going back to the Southern Continent.”

  “I guess the dry season will be all Kati, Jocan and I will see of Oasis City,” said Mikal. “We’ll have to get on our way as soon as we can put together a workable plan. It’s great to not have to worry about Guzi and Dakra sniffing at our trail, but I can’t begin to put an end to Gorsh’s dealings before I get back to Federation Space.”

  “Seems to me that you have taken on yourself a heavy burden,” Mea stated.

  “No heavier than the one Kati’s carrying. For me, this is my job. Kati is also out to end Gorsh’s business, but she is doing it to get her friends out of slavery.”

  “You knew people on the slave ship?” Mea asked,
turning to Kati.

  “I got to know them aboard the ship,” Kati replied. “Some of us had been there for a while when the opportunity to escape presented itself. Some of the ones who became my friends were from my world but others were not. However, I want to get every captive on that ship out of Gorsh’s hands, one way or another, whether or not he or she was a personal friend to me.”

  “Kat, Kati, won’t you be busy for years?” This was Susana.

  “Probably.” Kati kept her tone light. “It’ll keep me out of trouble.”

  “I’ll think of you if and when I ever get fed up working for Gerrard,” said Mea. “If Kati can keep on with her ong-term project, surely I can do my small job, whatever it may turn out to be.”

  *****

  Gerrard turned out to be a pleasant, busy man in his mid-thirties. He had olive skin, dark hair and eyes, a colouring common on this world. He was absolutely delighted to see Evo and his family; he told them that he could put them to work immediately, and they could stay at his residence until they could find other, more suitable accommodations, or else as long as they liked to stay, so long as they were working for him.

  “You have no idea what you’re offering to take on,” Evo chided him good-naturedly. “Just wait till you’ve listened to my wife and mother-in-law bicker for a few days before you promise to keep us indefinitely!”

  “If they’re willing to put in a day’s work on the looms, they can bicker all they want to,” Gerrard declared. “You have no idea what trouble I have had, constantly finding replacement workers, always having them leave as soon as they get good at their jobs.”

  “Why is that?” Mikal asked, curious.

  “The demand for the Narra-cloth has been going up for some time and is still doing so. The Narra-herders have expanded their production to try to meet the demand, so all the other levels of production have expanded, too. Lots of families are setting up looms to try to cash in. My shop is one of the old ones, set up long ago, when my uncle was still a young man. He believed in doing things properly, so he had really good looms crafted for him; I still have all the original ones, plus a few that he added later, and a couple that I have managed to add myself. A lot of the recently formed weaving businesses send their sons and daughters to work for me; once they know what they’re doing, Papa and Mama want them at home running the cheap looms that they have just bought. Because I haven’t much family here—my uncle never married—I have been forced to allow my business to be a weaving school of sorts. Although I refuse to take credit for the cloth that the cheap looms produce! A cheap loom makes cheap cloth!”

  “I suppose that if this fabric is in short supply, even cheap stuff is better than none,” Mikal commented.

  “I guess so,” Gerrard agreed, then shook his head. “I won’t have anything to do with it, though.”

  “We were actually hoping that you might have some advice for our friends, Mikal, Kati and Jocan here,” Susana broke in. “They are going to be continuing their journey to some place in the mountains, and have to decide on the best route, method of travel and so forth. It occurs, that as someone who has lived in Oasis City for some years, you might be able to offer them information.”

  “So there’s not a chance of three more employees?” Gerrard asked with a rueful laugh.

  “Afraid not. Sorry,” Mikal said. “Pressing commitments, and such.”

  “I might stop here on my way back,” said Jocan suddenly. “Nobody’s expecting me home in River City. I’m sure that I could learn to work a loom as well as anyone. But I do want to see Kati and Mikal to their destination; I’ve sort of made a promise—at least to myself—to see them safely away.”

  “You’re not hankering to go off-world with them?” Evo asked him.

  Jocan shook his head.

  “The thought did cross my mind but I saw pretty quickly that it wouldn’t make sense. Everything would be strange to me on a world not my own. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself most likely—I don’t have a path to follow like Kati does.”

  “Besides, The Seabird—with Rosine—sails regularly to Oasis City,” said Susana with a smile.

  “That is true.” If she was trying to annoy Jocan, she was not succeeding.

  “Are you two off-worlders?” asked Gerrard, looking from Mikal to Kati and back again, eyes reflecting curiosity.

  “Indeed,” Mikal replied. “With no transportation home. So we have to find a beacon which I know to exist in a mountain town on this continent, and send a call for a ride home. That’s why we have to continue travelling.”

  “You know, there’s an off-world Free Trader who comes to my shop a couple of times a year to buy cloth, which he says fetches a fabulous price somewhere or other in space.” Gerrard looked thoughtful. Then he shook his head. “No, I can’t see him giving you a lift. He always buys as much of my cloth as I can afford to give him, and I’m sure he trades in other things as well. He would not have room for two extra people, even if you could afford exorbitant fares.”

  Mikal shook his head, too.

  “No, I would not expect a lift from a Free Trader. Believe it or not, those guys don’t have much of a profit margin, no matter how fabulous the prices they get for their goods. Space craft are expensive to keep maintained, and the luxury goods that a Free Trader deals in are usually far from well-travelled routes—that’s why they are such luxuries. Most of those guys are just happy to make ends meet, doing what they love to do. There is no way I’d try to impose two bodies on a Free Trader; we’d bankrupt him by our presence, unless The Federation was willing to pay a fare equivalent to our weights in gold—and that’s not going to happen.”

  “But maybe we could arrange to have him courier one of the discs that Marco made for us on Sickle Island,” Kati said suddenly. “We could pay for a bolt of cloth maybe, as a payment for the service.”

  Mikal smiled at her.

  “Kati, you are right on.”

  Kati wrinkled her nose. She was certain that he had thought of it before she had, yet he was grinning at her like at a star pupil.

  “The Free Trader would only have to take it as far as the nearest Federation Planet or Space Station. There he could entrust it to the Federation Mail Service—and if I mark the packet with the Peace Officer Corps Priority Code, it’ll travel fast from there on.”

  They had taken advantage of Marco’s offer to record the information that they had gathered so far, using technology that The Reclamation Project had hauled from under the sea. Since the day that they had found the flyer had been very busy, they had not been able to get to the recording until the following morning, so it had had to be a rushed job. However, they had managed to get on disc the important details, Kati filling in the things that she knew first hand but that Mikal did not. Marco had then copied the disc twice, keeping one copy at The Project and giving Mikal the other two to pass to someone else, if a suitable opportunity to do so arose. This was clearly such an opportunity.

  Once again Mikal found himself impressed by Kati’s quickness; for a young woman come from a primitive, “Wilder” world, she was sharp. The long ocean voyage had given him the opportunity to assess her character under rigorous conditions. The tedium and the lack of activity of the ship-board life had certainly affected her, even as they had affected everyone else aboard The Seabird. She had been snappish at times, but had made an effort to keep short-tempered outbursts to a minimum. Instead, she had tried to entertain herself—and others, whenever possible—in healthy ways, avoiding the gambling games that took over the galley during many of the evening hours. She had studied the two books that she had brought on board, until they could offer her no more insights into the local writing. She had participated in the morning exercise sessions, even though the sailor women far exceeded her in body strength. She had spent hours on the deck, day and night, in all kinds of weather, encouraging the crewmembers who were on duty, but had only routine tasks to look after, to tell her the stories that sailors never tired of reciting.
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br />   “This would be a small item?” Gerrard asked, breaking into Mikal’s musings.

  Mikal opened his rucksack and pulled out a small flat box from an inner pocket. Marco had encased the discs he had given them in such boxes; it was possible to write on the boxes with a local stylus and ink.

  “I’d have to write the delivery information on it,” Mikal said. “Other than that, it’s ready to go.”

  “I have styli and ink at my office,” said Gerrard. “We’ll finish this bit of business there.”

  *****

  While Susana, Mea and Evo settled into their new lives, living and working with Gerrard, his wife Alia, and their two young children, Kati and Mikal used the advice that Gerrard gave them to ferret out caravanners who were planning to cross the desert in the direction in which they wanted to travel. It had become clear after a few conversations with the Weaver that cross the desert they must. There was, apparently, even a route that would take them more or less in the direction that they wanted to go, while snaking its way through a series of small settlements that clung to existence among the sand dunes, wherever there was enough water to support life.

  “I’ve had it explained to me that the route follows the bottom of a river that flowed there in pre-Disaster days,” Gerrard told them. “The area wasn’t a desert then, but productive farmland, feeding much of the population of the Northern Continent, and that population was a lot bigger in those days. But the change in climate was quirky, especially when it came to rainfall patterns. The coast here, now, is both dry and wet, each in its season. We get more rain than we know what to do with during the wet season but are bone dry during the dry one. Without the ground water—which gets replenished during our rainy period—Oasis City would not exist. The rains, however, only happen on the coast, so as soon as you travel inland you are in the middle of a desert. There is ground water where the old river used to run but it surfaces only in a few places, and those are the places where people can still eke out a living of sorts, growing irrigated vegetables and tending a few Narra-beasts.