Escape from the Drowned Planet

by Helena Puumala

  “Well now, and what sort of a problem would that be?” asked Zenco, still displaying nothing but curiosity.

  “I’ve been told that there’s a youth who has staked out himself on the steps of the Temple of the Morning Star of the Spring Equinox.”

  “Yes.” The Mayor of Faithville lost his cheerful expression. He leaned back in his chair and his look turned watchful. “The Eldest of the Religious Community was here just yesterday asking me if I had any ideas about what to do about him. Apparently he is very rude to the young women of the Community. Do you know him?”

  “Well, the truth is, I have never met the fellow; I haven’t laid eyes on him as a matter-of-fact,” Yarm said, speaking slowly and deliberately. “However, the two friends I have been travelling with are somewhat familiar with him. They are not impressed by his personality, shall we say.”

  Zenco smiled thinly.

  “I don’t think anyone who has met him is impressed with his personality,” he said. “However, there are more worrisome aspects than unpleasant personality, that we’re having to deal with.”

  “Let me guess. He claims to be an off-worlder. And also claims to have in his possession powerful weapons not native to this planet.”

  “Not ‘just claims’, Mister Yarm. The Eldest of the Religious Community says that he is certain the boy’s claims are factual.”

  “I’m afraid that my information agrees with the Eldest’s assertion,” Yarm stated with a sigh. “Is there any evidence that he has an accomplice?”

  “How in the name of...?”

  Zenco shot up to sit straight as a rod in his chair. His hands on the arms of the chair were clutching at the wood tightly. His eyes were wide open.

  Yarm sighed again.

  “So my friend Mikal was right about everything,” he said. “Truth to tell, he usually is. Very smart man, that one. But in a tight spot, right now. You see, he’s the one the boy and his accomplice are after. And they’ve staked out the Temple because they know that Mikal has to get into it in order to be able to return to the Star Federation planet which is his home.”

  “Good Heavens, what are you telling me? Off-worlders here to murder another off-worlder? What sort of insanity do we have the bad luck to be mixed-up in?”

  “Crime, my friend, crime.” Yarm closed his eyes for a second, then opened them again to gaze on Zenco’s shocked face. “My friend, Mikal, is a member of the Peace Officer Corps of the Star Federation. His work is with the Section of the Corps which tries to stop traffic in human beings.”

  “Traffic in human beings? What is that?” The Mayor’s face looked incredulous.

  “The common term is slavery,” Yarm replied in a cold voice.

  “Slavery? Surely it no longer exists!”

  “You would think so. And I have not come across such on my travels on this World. But Mikal tells me that it still happens out beyond our World, along the fringes of the Star Federation. The Federation does all it can to stamp it out wherever they can. Apparently, the boy by the Temple and his accomplice, are members of the crew of a space ship which collects and transports human cargo for the slave trade. These slavers had succeeded in capturing Mikal when he was on the Ship Captain’s home planet. He had been conducting an investigation for the Peace Officer Corps into what had been deemed to be dubious business practices. He was on the ship, drugged and comatose, when it stopped on our World to rendezvous with another ship, for some crooked trading. One of the slaves on the vessel managed to escape it, taking Mikal with her, and the two of them have been travelling across our planet now for quite some time, with your Temple as their goal, since it apparently houses an ancient beacon which can be used to call a Federation ship to pick them up. The slave ship crewmembers are here to stop them from making that call, any way that they can.”

  “Good heavens.” Zenco looked a bit ill. “I certainly don’t want murder done in my town, even if both the killer and the victim are from the stars. And I’m sure the Religious Community would consider it a desecration of their Temple for that to happen there. But what can we do to prevent it? We’re a peaceful, non-violent community; we have nothing with which to fight this sort of a thing!”

  “Mikal would say that we have our ingenuity, our brains,” answered Yarm. “And he would be right. As a matter-of-fact, he is not allowed to kill anyone, not even these enemies of his, slavers though they be. He has taken an oath to preserve all human life; he tells me that it is a prerequisite for working for the Peace Officer Corps. So he has to make his call for a Federation pick-up ship on the beacon in the Temple, and he has to do it without killing even a slaver.”

  “I still don’t know what we of Faithville can do to help,” said Zenco with a touch of desperation in his voice.

  “To be honest, I don’t know either, at the moment. But I feel that perhaps you and any law enforcement people you may have, as well as the Eldest, and maybe his second, if he has one, of the Religious Community should come to the Faithville Inn to meet with my friends, Mikal and Kati, and do a little bit of brainstorming with them. They cannot leave the Inn since the slavers know their faces and have potent weapons in their hands. As far as I know, at the moment the slavers do not know that their quarry has arrived in town.”

  “Yes, yes, I’m sure that I can arrange a meeting at the Inn. I’ll send word to the Eldest of the Religious Community and talk to Wills, our present law enforcer. When did you want to meet?”

  “I’m sure that Kati and Mikal would be glad to arrange a supper meeting,” replied Yarm. “They are generous that way, and seem to have enough coin to pay for it.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  When Jocan returned from his trip to the Religious Community and The Temple, Yarm had already made his report to Mikal and Kati. Arrangements for supper and a meeting in the Faithville Inn’s restaurant’s private room were also in the works. Yarm, Mikal and Kati were in Mikal and Kati’s room, bouncing ideas off one another when Jocan walked in.

  “Jocan! Good to see you,” Mikal cried as soon as he saw the youth. “Now perhaps we’ll get some concrete information, and will be able to make some real plans!”

  “You’ve heard about Joakim the Jerk, then, I take it?” Jocan said, scrutinizing faces as he sat down in the nearest chair.

  “Hearsay, all hearsay,” Yarm sighed. “I’m presuming that you actually saw him?”

  “Oh yes.” Jocan made a face. “And listened to him and watched him strut. Unlikeable little git. But dangerous.”

  “Armed, of course,” commented Mikal.

  “Of course,” agreed Jocan. He had something nasty in his pocket that he was pointing at me and Tania—the girl who came with me to show me the Temple. And he had a bag beside him, too, and I have my suspicions as to its contents.”

  “I think that we can take it for granted that he had more firepower in that bag,” Mikal said drily. “Did you see any evidence of the accomplice?”

  “Nothing other than the way he responded to my taunt about his father leaving him here alone,” Jocan replied. “But I did get a good idea where the flyer—assuming it’s a flyer that they have—is hidden. I got him to glance in its direction; I’m sure he did not even realize what information he was giving away.”

  “The Mayor knows that there is a second person,” put in Yarm. “I think we can take his existence for a fact.”

  “Without doubt,” Mikal agreed. “We’ll ask him and the Eldest about this person tonight. In the meantime, Jocan, can you describe the Temple to me, its interior, especially, in as much detail as you can remember?”

  Jocan launched into the monologue which he had been preparing for some time. Mikal listened to him intently, asking a question every now and then, to clarify some point. When Jocan described the large painting on the back wall, he grew silent and thoughtful, allowing Jocan to finish his description of it before responding in any way.

  “So, the picture is of a lighted city at night,” he finally began, once Jocan had finished. “With the
Temple building in the back, at the cliff, also lighted. And above and behind the Temple looms a mountain, with the night sky above it. And, you said, that there’s a large star to the right of the mountain peak?”

  “Yeah. It doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the picture, because it’s been painted differently from the other stars in the sky,” Jocan explained. “It’s too big and too bright. I asked Tania if it was supposed to be the Morning Star of the Spring Equinox, but she said she didn’t know. Nobody knows, because apparently all the temple records and writings were lost in the flood along with almost all the people in the city. But it is hard not to draw the conclusion that it must be that star.”

  “Hm. That’s logical,” commented Mikal. “But go on with your description of the interior.”

  Jocan did.

  “So, was that helpful?” he asked Mikal after he had finished his recitation and the older man had sat in silence for a moment or two.

  “Yeah, Jocan,” Mikal replied with a grin. “Definitely. Now I just have to get into that Temple with a certain piece of equipment and without first being shot full of some drug by Gorsh’s son or his accomplice.”

  “Perhaps the Mayor, or the Eldest of the Religious Community, can help with that, somehow,” suggested Yarm.

  “I’m sure they can at least provide me with the equipment I need,” replied Mikal, still grinning. “It’s not high-tech.”

  “Well if you’re going to be all mysterious and hold out on us,” said Kati impishly, “I’m going to return the favour and not tell you the idea I have had about how to get those two away from the Temple.”

  Mikal gazed at her for a moment and shook his head.

  “I have the suspicion that I can make an educated guess as to what you’re going to propose,” he said, ”and I also have an unpleasant feeling that I may have to go along with it, simply because there are no other options. But since we’re going to leave the thrashing of all that for the meeting at supper tonight, may I propose another way Yarm and Jocan can exercise their talents this afternoon? With the help of any locals that they may be able to persuade into action?”

  “Let’s hear your proposal,” Yarm’s voice was laconic.

  “Jocan, you said that you tricked this Joakim character into revealing the likely location of the flyer that he and his fellow crewmember are using, right?” Mikal asked, turning to Jocan.

  “Yeah. He turned to look at this bunch of trees that stands a moderate distance from the Temple with no houses near it. It looked a lot like the copse that I remember you and the others who found the flyer on Sickle Island describing.”

  “What I’d like to know is whether they are using a concealing tarp to hide it, or a Deflector Shield. You heard the stories about how the Deflector Shield worked on Sickle Island.”

  At Jocan’s nod, he continued: “I would like the two of you, in the company of some helpful locals, preferably, to walk around and through that treed area. If the flyer is there, you will either bump your shins into something invisible or else find yourselves mysteriously being deflected around the area where it is. Oh, and it would help if you have an excuse for roaming about around there; the locals would really come in handy on that count.”

  “I managed to get sort of friendly with a bunch of young people at the Religious Community,” Jocan said with a grin. “Tania invited me to have lunch in their dining room and introduced me to a number of her friends. I’m sure one of them will come up with an idea why we should comb through that patch of woods, if we put the problem to them.”

  *****

  Yarm and Jocan left the Inn together shortly thereafter. Kati, frustrated with being pent-up in the building and with nothing to do but try to refine her plan to draw Gorsh’s men away from the Temple, went for a bath. Mikal did not argue with her as she left, merely laughed at the frown on her face and told her that he intended to do his meditation exercises while she was dousing herself with hot water. She made a face at him, gave him an impromptu hug and went.

  Meanwhile Yarm and Jocan made their way to the green space of Tania’s block of the Religious Community. As Jocan had expected from his earlier experience in the area, there were children playing games on the grass and young people—this time of both sexes—sitting and chatting at a couple of the picnic tables. At another table there were several adults, talking among themselves in low, serious tones.

  “Is Tania around?” Jocan asked at the first picnic table that they came to.

  “She took one of the little boys into the infirmary to salve his bruised knees,” replied a boy about Jocan’s age. “She’ll be back shortly.”

  “Why don’t you sit beside me, Jocan?” invited Saria, making room on the bench beside her.

  “I suppose that I can do that,” Jocan chuckled and sat down beside her.

  Someone made room for Yarm across the table from him, and Jocan introduced him to the young people:

  “This is my father, Yarm,” he said.

  There was a chorus of “Pleased to meet you, sir”, and young people at tables introduced themselves to him.

  “Jocan told us that you’ve travelled all over the world,” Saria said to him, looking somewhat awed. “You must have seen a lot of different things.”

  “Indeed,” he replied with a laugh.

  A tall man from the third table rose and walked over to them. Apparently the adults had been eavesdropping on the youngsters since the newcomers had arrived.

  “Did I hear that your name is Yarm?” he asked.

  The young folk around Yarm fell respectfully silent at this.

  “You heard right,” Yarm answered, looking at the tall man curiously.

  “Then you’re the man who talked to Mayor Zenco, this morning?”

  “Yes indeed.”

  “Well, I’m the Eldest of this Community,” the tall man explained, “and I understand that my second and I are to meet with him, his law-enforcer, and yourself and some other travellers at supper time tonight. Is that why you and your son are here, now?”

  “Not exactly,” Yarm replied. “We had hoped to obtain some help from some of your young people in a little enterprise which is related to the matter that will be discussed tonight. Jocan here, became acquainted with these youngsters this morning, I understand.”

  “Ooh, Jocan, are you up to something?” Saria asked, batting her eyelashes.

  “I’m always up to something,” he responded with a grin.

  “And that’s the truth,” Yarm added with feeling, but chuckling at the same time.

  “There’s a smallish group of trees past the field outside the Temple,” Jocan said, serious now. “Something that the Joakim character—he of the beautiful manners—said this morning, made me think that he and his partner in crime might be hiding something there. I’d like to take a look through there but I need an excuse. And it wouldn’t hurt to have some company along.”

  “Katrin and I went there about a week ago looking for mushrooms,” said one of the adult women at the third picnic table. There have always been morels in that grove before, especially after rains, but this time we found almost none.”

  “That would provide cover for a tramp through there, would it not?” asked Yarm. “Morels make good eating.”

  “I’ll get a few baskets,” said the woman who had spoken before. “I wouldn’t mind getting a few mushrooms to add to tonight’s salad, that’s for sure; so if some of you young people don’t mind going on a mushroom hunt I’d be most grateful.”

  She got up and headed for the part of the long building which housed the kitchen-dining area.

  Jocan threw a triumphant grin at Yarm who smiled back at him in genuine amusement.

  “So who’s coming mushroom picking?” Jocan asked next, of the seven other teens around the tables.

  “We all are coming of course,” said a tallish, skinny, dark-haired boy. “What will we be looking for?”

  “Mushrooms,” replied Jocan with a hearty laugh. “And we’ll keep track of how
we’re not finding them.”

  “Huh? Come again?” This was Saria.

  “If Joakim and his accomplice have their machine parked in that grove, we want to know how they’re hiding it,” Jocan explained. “We won’t be able to see it but by what happens when we search for the mushrooms we ought to be able to tell their method of concealment and approximately where the hiding place is.”

  Just then Tania came running, carrying a pile of small baskets.

  “I’m coming mushrooming, too,” she announced. “Ammi told me about it when I just saw her in the kitchen.”

  “What about Link?” asked Saria with a pout. “Weren’t you supposed to be caring for him?”

  “Oh, I got him all bandaged up,” Tania replied airily. “Ammi’s feeding him cookies in the kitchen.”

  “Well, Dad Yarm,” said Jocan cheerfully. “I think you might as well stay here and keep company with the Eldest and all these other good folk. Looks like I have plenty enough company for this task and it might look odd if you were with us.”

  “Sure, why not?” Yarm laughed. “You’re perfectly competent to do the job.”

  “You, Eldest, and Yarm, come and sit at this table,” invited the one woman left at the third table after Ammi had gone for the baskets. “I’m going to go and get us a tray of mugs and a pot of herbal tea. It’s a nice day but tea always tastes good, and I did hear Tania mention the word ‘cookies’.”

  She ushered the two men to join the two already there and headed towards the kitchen.

  *****

  Jocan and the other teens gave Joakim a wide berth on their way to pick mushrooms. Not that Jocan had any illusions about Joakim not knowing where they would be mushrooming. Mikal had explained to him and Yarm before they left that since the two from Gorsh’s ship were not staying anywhere in the town, they were most likely holing up in, and around, their flyer, assuming that they had a Deflector Shield for it. They would have surveillance equipment there, and a means of communicating with Joakim’s hangout on the Temple steps. Jocan, however, did not mention anything of this to the young people accompanying him, judging that innocent behaviour was easiest if a person wasn’t pretending. And these were honest folk he was mushrooming with, not ones used to underhandedness.