Escape from the Drowned Planet

by Helena Puumala

  The housing here was different from the rest of the town, that was the first thing he noted. The buildings had their backs turned to the narrow streets; they formed a continuous wall which he could glimpse behind the riotous gardens that filled the space between the houses and the street. He thought of gardens, rather than a single garden the length of the block, because the plants varied from one patch to the next: one short stretch was fruit trees and berry bushes, the next one was planted with vegetables and tubers, and the section after it was filled with carefully tended grape vines. At first he was puzzled as to how the gardeners entered their domains—did they have to walk all the way around the long edifice every time they came to do the tending?—but after walking for a while he realized that there were, indeed, small unobtrusive doors into the separate plots, always almost hidden behind some prominent tree or a growth of vines.

  The fronts of the houses had to be where he would have expected the backs to be, he decided, and when he came to the end of the block he made his way around the structure. The sounds of children at play were the first indication that his assumption was correct.

  Between the long building and another very like it, he entered a pleasant green space of grass, trees, and bushes; there were picnic tables on the grass, and a dozen or so youngsters playing, watched over by a handful of girls close to his own age. The two buildings formed a community with a commons between them, looking inward rather than outward, unlike the streetscapes in the other half of the town.

  He stopped to admire the pastoral scene of children at play, and one of the older girls noticed him and immediately began to walk on over. She was a black-haired, bright-eyed miss, dressed in a simple shift that left her shapely arms bare, and also her legs, as far as the knees. Her feet were shod with sandals which flopped a bit as she walked. Jocan, the young connoisseur of feminine beauty, looked upon her with pure pleasure. Much more delicately built than Rosine, the sailor girl, was his opinion, but just as attractive.

  “You must be a traveller,” the girl greeted him. “Was there something in particular you wanted to see?”

  “You have got me pegged,” Jocan replied. “I am indeed a traveller in this town. My name is Jocan. And all this is new and interesting to me.” He indicated the two buildings and the green space with his hand and arm.

  “I’m Tania,” the girl introduced herself, without hesitation. “You are looking at communal living, Jocan. All the families who live in this block belong to a sharing arrangement. Every family has its private quarters in the two buildings but there are also a shared kitchen, a laundry, a workshop, and a recreation area.” She sounded like she was giving a lecture; clearly Jocan was not the first curious traveller to have wandered into her world.

  “Interesting,” said Jocan, looking around at the buildings.

  Ah, yes. He could see that towards the ends the structures were divided into small units that each had their own doors, but in the middle of both buildings there were larger sections, each with a single entrance to it. These were the shared facilities, no doubt.

  “If you want to see the common areas, I can show them to you,” Tania offered. “The private quarters, no; they are private.”

  “That makes sense,” said Jocan with a laugh, “but, yes, I’d love to see the common areas.”

  More than looking at the facilities he was interested in walking beside this comely girl, and in chatting with her, flirting with her, if she let him.

  Tania led him by the other girls who sat around a picnic table while watching the little ones and talking amongst themselves.

  “Hey, Tania!” called one of them as Jocan and Tania walked by. “No wonder you rushed off to do the guiding! He’s a cute one!”

  “Watch it, Saria!” Tania shouted back. “All you ever do is sit, and don’t think I don’t know it!”

  She made a face at the other girl who stuck her tongue out back at her.

  Jocan decided that the best policy was to ignore this exchange, and he followed Tania wordlessly until they entered the building closest to them.

  “This is the kitchen and the dining area,” Tania explained as she showed Jocan around the large room with empty tables scattered throughout. In the back he could see the stoves and the counters of a comfortable kitchen in which a number of men and women were working.

  “So, everyone who lives in these two buildings eats here?” Jocan asked.

  “Yeah,” Tania replied. “We all take turns cooking, and serving, and cleaning up afterwards. Everybody does a little bit of everything, although, once it’s clear that you’re very good at, say, wine-making and a disaster at growing tubers, you’ll be spending more time with the grapes than with a hoe. It just makes sense.”

  “What are you good at?” Jocan asked her.

  Tania looked slightly taken aback.

  “Oh, I don’t know yet,” she answered after a moment’s thought. Then she grinned. “Guiding travellers, maybe.”

  “Well, then I’ve got myself the right person with me,” Jocan said with a chuckle. “Let’s do the rest of the tour.”

  They peeked in the laundry where clothes were hanging on lines stretching from wall to wall, and it was hard to see anything else. They walked through the workshop, a part of which had been turned into a small wine-making operation, and the rest of which was filled with workbenches and tools. The recreation area was mostly empty space, although there were chairs stacked along one wall, and Tania showed Jocan a couple of closets, of which one was packed full of sporting equipment and the other held a small assortment of musical instruments. Then they returned outside.

  “When the weather is good, everyone spends a lot of time outdoors,” Tania explained. “When there’s rain we’re either in the recreation area or in the dining room—people like to sit around the dining tables and play games at times like that. Besides, it’s close to where the tea is kept, and everyone likes a cup of something hot when the weather’s wet.”

  “I was wondering about the Temple, as well,” Jocan said a bit tentatively. “I’ve heard a lot about it. How it was indestructible in The Disaster, and how the Religious Community grew around it. Would it be possible for me to see The Temple of the Morning Star of the Spring Equinox?”

  “Of course you can see it,” Tania responded, smiling at him with real pleasure. “I can be your guide there, too. The Elders aren’t crazy about people going in there without someone from the Community acting as a guide, but as long as I’m with you it’s not a problem. It’s a beautiful building; I’m sure you’ll be happy to see it.”

  Wow, this was turning out just fine, Jocan thought. After listening to some of the folk in the other part of the town, he had worried about what kind of a reception he might get among the Faithful, but it seemed that they were a friendly bunch—well, at least Tania was a friendly girl.

  “This way,” she said, pointing towards the direction in which the mountain loomed. “It’s up near the cliff.”

  “Maybe that’s why it survived The Disaster,” Jocan suggested. “It was sheltered by the cliff.”

  “That’s what everybody new says,” Tania said in a slightly mocking tone. “But if that was the case, why did all the other buildings near the cliff not survive the flooding?”

  “Hm,” mused Jocan. “That’s a good question.”

  “The Temple was the only building left standing in this part of the ancient city,” lectured Tania. “The flood waters coursed beside the cliff, coming from the mountain down there—“ she pointed to a gouge in the cliff side, “and carried everything except the Temple away with them. People died by the thousands. When it was all over, all that was left standing was The Temple of the Morning Star of the Spring Equinox. The survival of the Temple was truly a miracle.”

  She drew a breath.

  “It must have been a horrible time,” she then added sadly. “I can’t begin to imagine the pain and the sorrow that the destruction must have caused those few people left alive.”

  “It w
as the same all over this world,” Jocan said softly. “So much destruction. So many people who died. I can’t say that I understand why it had to happen.”

  They were climbing up a narrow street towards the cliff. Tania’s sandals were making a flapping noise as she padded along, while Jocan’s riding boots were almost soundless as he walked slowly beside her, keeping his pace down to hers. A gentle breeze following them played with their hair from behind, and brought to their nostrils delightful smells of growing things of all kinds. The sun shone down from a blue sky. It was a beautiful day on which to think about a catastrophic past.

  Soon they arrived at the square around the Temple. The Temple was a building made of rock, and it stood alone, next to the cliff but with no other buildings around it. There was a massive staircase in the front, extending the whole length of the building, and it had been added to in the not too distant past, for the last two steps were of a different coloured stone, and made of small blocks, rather than carved out of solid rock like the higher ones looked to be. The building itself was not ornate, but had large wooden doors and a few diamond-shaped windows on the sides that Jocan could see from his vantage point. There was nothing really that he could see that would have marked it as a temple, but that did not disturb him. He had grown up in River City, after all, with its odd aggregation of temples; he had few preconceived notions about how a temple ought to look.

  “You will note that the Religious Community had to build two new steps in order for the Faithful to enter the Temple,” Tania said, back in her lecture mode. “When my people first congregated here, the steps of the Temple ended up in the air; that’s how much of the soil had been washed away by the flood. As you see, all around us the ground is covered in grass; my people seeded that grass. There were no plants at all in this area when we first moved here and it was hard to get even the grass to grow since all the topsoil was gone.”

  “Didn’t the stairs fall down to the ground?” Jocan asked, somewhat puzzled by the notion of stone steps ending in empty air.

  Tania shook her head.

  “I guess they were securely attached to the building,” she replied. “My people put rocks and gravel and stuff under them before they built the two new steps, just to make sure that they would stay where they were.”

  “Fascinating,” Jocan said as they approached the building. He wondered if Yarm or even Mikal could enlighten him about the way the building must have been constructed. Apparently the Federation agents who put in the beacon had made certain, using their off-world knowledge, that the temple which housed their call-home system, would not succumb to even the worst natural disaster.

  There was someone lounging on the Temple steps, at one end of the building.

  “Rats, rats, rats!” Tania muttered as the lounger rose up to a sitting position as they approached. “He’s still here—or again! I wish he’d go away and leave this place be!”

  Jocan stared at a thin teenager with stringy dark hair and a receding chin. He was wearing a one-piece suit of some kind; it hung loose on his skinny figure. Beside him he had a kitbag which was half-filled with something. Jocan’s neck hairs stood up as he and Tania approached the steps. It looked to him like he had found the very lad he and his companions had been discussing the night before!

  He slowed his pace even though he and Tania were already walking slowly. Tania followed his example and their progress towards the Temple became snail-like.

  “Who is he?” he hissed at Tania, wondering if the stranger could hear them in spite of their lowered voices. He decided that he better assume that this was so—Kati and Mikal had mentioned that having nodes allowed them to turn up their hearing at will.

  “His name is Joakim,” Tania said in a very low voice. “He claims to be an off-worlder. He says he’s waiting for some other off-world guy who’s supposed to be coming to this Temple for some reason that I could not understand. He said one day that he has weapons and that he’s going to kill the other man when he arrives.

  “It all sounds like crazy hooey to me. I don’t believe any of it, and neither do the Elders. Some of them think he’s a harmless nut, but I hate having him around. I don’t like the way he looks at me, like I’m a thing or something.”

  Tania was growing agitated as she spoke and Jocan placed a calming hand on her arm.

  “How about we chat him up and find out what kind of a dope he actually is?” he said to her in a very low whisper. “Don’t worry about him pulling anything on you. He won’t get a chance, that’s a promise.”

  When she nodded, he picked up his pace and encouraged her to speed up to her normal walking gait as well.

  “So are you a new arrival in town?” the youth called to Jocan as soon as the two of them were within earshot.

  “Been in town since yesterday,” Jocan replied laconically. “Seeing the sights.”

  “Who’s travelling with you?” the boy on the steps inquired.

  Jocan bit his tongue to keep back a retort about an inquisition. This kid was totally lacking in finesse, he thought, but that was all to the good.

  “I’m travelling with my father,” he replied instead. He felt inordinately pleased to be able to make a claim like that.

  “Who’s your father?”

  Tania made a slight choking sound beside Jocan. Jocan gave her arm a reassuring squeeze to let her know that he was not upset by the rudeness the other youth was displaying.

  “My father’s name is Yarm and he and I are travelling to our home on the Northern Plains,” Jocan answered, sticking strictly to the facts as he knew them.

  “I don’t know nothing about any Northern Plains,” the other youth snapped at him. “Did anyone travel with you and your father?”

  “No.”

  It was a calculated lie. Before he and Yarm had split that morning to go their separate ways, they had agreed to keep Mikal and Kati’s presence with them a secret, in so far as was possible. Jocan had no intention whatsoever of delivering Mikal into this one’s gun sights.

  He decided that it was time for him to grasp the initiative.

  “And who may you be that you think you have the right to ask me all these questions?” he asked.

  He and Tania had arrived at the bottom of the steps and stood facing the skinny stranger who was clutching at his bag anxiously. The hand not on the bag was in a pocket of his suit and Jocan was quite sure that it was fingering a weapon of some kind. The boy was scared, Jocan realized with some astonishment; even as this realization sunk in he understood the reason for it. He himself was much more muscular and a quite a bit taller than the stranger; without the weapons in the boy’s possession, it would have been easy for Jocan to subdue him.

  “My name is Joakim and I’m not of this world,” the skinny one replied defiantly. “I’m an off-worlder.”

  Jocan glanced around him.

  “If you’re from off-planet, where’s your space ship?” he asked, managing to sound incredulous.

  “What would you know about space ships?” Joakim inquired in return, his voice contemptuous.

  “You’d be surprised,” replied Jocan levelly. “My father has travelled all over the world and he has talked to many Free Traders whom he has met on his travels.”

  “I piss on Free Traders!” Joakim snarled. “My father owns a big ship which he uses to—“ he clamped down on his tongue abruptly, and swallowed.

  Stupid kid, Jocan thought.

  “Well, where is it?” he asked. “You don’t expect me to believe fairy stories, do you?”

  “It’s where it’s supposed to be,” the youth on the steps answered sullenly. “In space. Where my Dad conducts his business.”

  “So your father dropped you off here on this world all by yourself while he went off to conduct business? What’s the matter? He mad at you or something?”

  “I have a job to do,” Joakim protested angrily. “He left me here to kill a Federation Peace Officer who escaped from our ship while we made a stop here almost a year ago! He
’s gonna have to come to this Temple to get off this planet! And you know, I could kill you just as easily, you bastard; I could press the trigger on the gun in my hand and you’d be yesterday’s news!”

  Tania grabbed at Jocan’s hand and made a gulping sound in her throat. Joakim glanced at her, a pleased expression crossing his face. Someone, at least, was reacting to his threats!

  “I wouldn’t advise you to do so, if you want to get the man you’re after,” Jocan said calmly. “We don’t take unprovoked attacks lightly on this world, and I don’t care how many guns you have, sooner or later you’ll die with an arrow in your eye if you start killing people for no good reason.”

  Joakim took his hand out of his pocket and slumped down on the step dejectedly.

  “Yeah, well my Dad said to get the job done and not make any more waves than I had to. It’s not a good idea to make enemies if you don’t have to.” The last sentence sounded like a lesson someone had repeated to him until he had it memorized.

  “So, Joakim, where are you staying?” Jocan asked in a more friendly tone of voice. “Which inn?”

  “Oh, I’m not at an inn,” the youth replied, looking up at Jocan’s changed tone. “I’ve got a little—er—a shelter, in among some trees a ways from here.”

  He glanced to his right, and Jocan, having learned long ago, in River City, to read that kind of gesture, knew approximately where to look for the lad’s “shelter” when the time to do so would come.

  “Surely your father didn’t leave you here all by yourself, Joakim,” Jocan said next. “I mean, it would be easy enough to miss a person while you answer a call of nature or go and get something to eat or drink. And you do have to sleep sometimes, just like everyone else.”

  “I’ve got equipment you can’t even imagine,” muttered Joakim. “Nobody climbs up these steps without my knowledge.”

  Jocan was listening very closely, evaluating this answer. His instincts told him that it was a partial truth; the skinny boy probably did have some kind of a monitoring device trained on the Temple steps. But Jocan also suspected that Joakim did have an accomplice in the background, someone who was not keen on being seen. Very likely he would be the one to patrol the entrance to The Temple during the dark hours when he could hang about without being seen, but would still be able to recognize and dart Mikal, if Mikal tried to enter the building under the cover of darkness.