For One Nen (17 page)

Maven Sharla turned around and with every step she took back to the elevator she tried her best to keep hope alive in her heart.

She found Mathis in the dining hall finishing his tray of food.

“I’m sorry,” she said with a heavy heart. Henry can’t get the device to use those hard drives. I wish there was something else I could do to help.”

“It’s okay, Maven. Thank you for trying.”

The Maven sat across the table from him as if she were spent.

“We’ll just have to make something,” Mathis said.

The Maven smiled. “That’s just what Henry said about his problem.”

“I wonder if we found the manual about our old computers if that might help us?” Mathis said.

Maven Sharla watched him tug at his chin tentacles as he thought through the problem.

“That would be a good start,” the Maven said.

“Now we just have to find the manuals.” Mathis said.

“Maven,”
a whispering voice called out.

The Maven looked around to see Teltel quickly approaching wit
h Benai following close behind.

“
Hello boys,” Maven Sharla said.

Teltel slid
into a seat next to the Maven.

“Hey there,” Benai said to Mathis as he sat down next to him and leaned forward for a whispered conversation with the Maven.

“You should have seen it, Maven,” Teltel said with a smile.

Tanik went totally sparse.

“That’s not a nice word, Teltel,” Maven Sharla said.

“Let me tell you what happened
and then you can find a word for her,” Teltel laughed.

Mathis scrunched his lips together into a s
mile that held in his laughter.

“Out with it, boys.
What happened?” the Maven said.

“We were coming from our quarters when Tanik showed up outside our door. She demanded the ‘book of lies’ that we had been reading from. And she said it just like
that too.” Teltel stuck up his nose and repeated with a high voice. “Book of lies,” but his changing voice broke and Benai began to laugh at him. He slapped Benai’s arm with the back of his hand.

“Anyway,” Teltel began again. “She demanded a book. I told her I didn’t know what she was talking about. But she started screaming. I’m surprised you couldn’t hear her all over this ship. I don’t know, Maven. Sparse seems the right word.”

“I think the word you’re looking for is simply, crazy,” the Maven said.

“Tha
t’s what I meant,” Teltel said.

“Continue
,” the Maven said.

“So
she got all…crazy…and I didn’t know what to do. So I pulled out a book and handed it to her. She didn’t even look at it because she was so mad. Then she just marched off as if she’d won some big showdown.”

“I’m sorry you lost your book,” the Maven said.

Teltel began to laugh again.

“It was just some book of poetry,” Benai revealed. “It wasn’t any of the books Tala’s been reading to us.”

Teltel’s eyebrows slammed together as he frowned at Benai then nodded toward Mathis.

Mathis ducked his head and held his cup tighter.

“I couldn’t get Henry to go into the Hoth sector to get the computer to play the hard drives you have. Mathis thinks that finding the manual for the computer would help. Have you seen anything like that?” asked the Maven.

“T
here are still some books and things at the bottom of the crate. Some look like manuals. We should check there.”

The boys jumped up and hurried off when Teltel called back to Mathis, “Well, hurry up.”

Mathis looked a moment at his tray and cup.

“I’ll see to these,” the Maven said with a smile. “Better hurry along.”

Maven Sharla watched Mathis catch up to the bigger boys when she caught someone’s eye at the next table.

Merari dropped h
er head as if she’d been caught, which she had. She had been eaves dropping.

The Maven watched her for a moment, but Merari never lifted her eyes again. Even when Merari left, she never looked at the Maven.

Maven Sharla did see something of interest, though. When Merari left the dining hall Tanik met up with her. They talked a moment and Tanik stormed off toward the elevator.

The Maven waited a moment then she followed them. Teacher and student hurried round the hall as it curved toward the gardens. But Tanik didn’t stop at the gardens. She continued on around the long circular hallway to the next door. She turned the knob and with a hand on Merari’s back pushed her into the emissaries’ offices and lounge.

The Maven wasn’t used to spying. She knew though, that if the Emissaries ever got word about Teltel they would have no hope of making the hard drives work.

She hurried back to the gardens where she found Deni.

“Oh! Hello there, Maven,” Deni said as she slid her knife back into her boot. On the table in front of her was a sliced tomato.

Maven Sharla turned her head slowly as she looked at the tables of vegetables and vines of berries and rows of flowers. It always delighted Maven Sharla to see the vastness of the room with so much growth.

“It has been too long since I was in here.” She strolled over to a table. Deni remained quiet as the Maven ran her fingers lightly through the dirt.

“Yes, Maven. You haven’t visited me since before…” Deni didn’t finish her thought aloud.

“I used to bring Arvin here,” she smiled. “We used to steal tomatoes,” she motioned to the one on the table by Deni. “But we always liked those…oh…what did they call them…black cherry tomatoes? Arvin loved those. Do you have any of those?”

“No, I’m sorry Maven,” Deni said. “We’ve not had those since before I was born.”

“So much loss,” the Maven said. “Arvin loved those.”

“Who’s Arvin?” Deni asked softly.

“He was the son of the first Hoth caretakers,” said the Maven in a far off gaze. She rubbed her hand through the dirt.

“They let Hoth in the gardens?” Deni said in dismay.

“No,” the Maven said as she rubbed her hands together to clean off the black dirt. “That’s why we came during sleeping hours. We snuck in here and ate until our bellies were full of the sweet purple fruits.” She again had a far off gaze.

“Would you like a tomato, Maven?” Deni asked kindly.

“No, no…well…maybe just a slice,” she said with a smile. She delicately picked up a red piece, took a bite, and closed her eyes. “That is magnificent,” the Maven said with a smile.

“Have as much as you like, Maven,” Deni said.

With another bite the Maven finished her fresh tomato. “Thank you dear, but I was looking for Teltel. Has he been here?”

“Sure, the boys are in the fallow field working on some sort of computer. They even figured out how to tap into the electrical system of this room to power their computer since that room’s power has been shut off during its fallow season.”

“I should go check on them,” the Maven said. “But I hear,” the Maven tilted her head down to talk softly, “that you’ve been reading stories.”

“Yes,” Deni said. “Sort of.”

“What does that mean?” the Maven asked.

“Someone else reads. I just listen,” Deni said.

“And I hear that some are upset by this,” the Maven said.

“Indeed,” Deni said.

The Maven smiled and began to walk away toward the fallow field.

“Tell Tala hello and let me know if you have any more trouble from anyone, dear,” the Maven said as she walked down the long aisle. Before she reached the door to the fallow field she met Aiden watering some out-of-control vines.

“I hear you have company,” the Maven said with a smile.

Aiden looked high up to meet Maven Sharla’s gaze and said, “Boys.” He nodded
his head. “Says they might get-some old videos-working.” Aiden laughed and said again, “Boys.”

“I think I’ll check and see if they’ve made any progress,” the Maven said.

“Sure, go-right on in,” Aiden said holding the door for the Neph that slightly faded as she went.

Aiden let the door close as he heard the front door open to the main garden. He peered down the row to see Tanik coming into view. He moved his little legs quic
kly as he approached the keepers’ teacher. Four Emissaries entered and stood behind Tanik. As they did, Tanik folded her arms and looked down at Aiden.

“Don’t-bring-in those-dusty-books
you-Goweli,” he said, as his words punched the air.

“I don’t have books, little one,” Tanik said with her condescending smile. “But I hear books have already been here.”

“I-don’t-allow dusty-books in-here,” Aiden protested.

With Tanik and the emissaries looking down at Aiden and Deni who drew near, the door swung open again. Immediately, Tala saw the disturbance and quickly slipped the book she was holding behind the large stalks of sugarcane by the door.

She walked straight to Deni and stood by her side.

“So this is where you come instead of your place at the library,” Tanik said.

“My heart lives here, now,” Tala said plainly.

Deni smiled and quietly took her hand.

“No more reading lies,” the Anthro emissary said to Tala, while rubbing his hands together like he had touched a speck of dirt by just being in the gardens.

“You lie, and you’re spreading lies to others,” the same emissary said.

Deni pulled her knife and let it dangle casually in her hand. “Don’t call Tala a liar,” Deni said with intense calm. “She is good, and kind, and beautiful and deserves every molecule of respect you can squeeze out of your sparsed, arrogant, self-serving little selves. I won’t allow you to be offensive or discourteous to her,” she said. Deni’s golden eyes almost burned bright when she spoke in defense of her partner.

Tala squeezed Deni’s hand tightly and smiled with pride.

“Ahh! There’s nothing here,” the Het emissary said; quite annoyed.

“But I know they read the lies of the ancients,” Tanik complained to the emissaries. They must be hiding,” she said as her eyes scanned the room.

“There!” she shouted and pointed her finger far off toward the fallow field. She raced down the aisle toward the door.

“You don’t want-
to do that,” Aiden called out.

“You can’t stop me,” she shouted over her shoulder.

Aiden climbed up on his step stool and flipped a switch. A shower of water came down on the table gardens and the thick heavy mist covered Tanik.

She turned around and looked at Aiden as if she could knock his head off.

“I thought the water system was cut off,” Tala whispered to Deni.

“I guess not,” Deni whispered with a giggle.

“Nice and cool?” Aiden said with a smile. “No-life-in-fallow-field. No-life support-for-many months now. No-air-left.”

“Come, Tanik. There’s nothing here,” the Goweli emissary called to the angry and wet Tanik.

She dragged herself to the garden door looking like a wet rag.

Just when the first emissary had opened the door to leave
, everything went black; the expansive garden room, the hallway, the exterior of the ship that was often lit around the windows – were all in total blackness. A moment later a flashing red warning light above each door lit up and a loud siren sounded.

The emissaries dashed out of the garden leavin
g the door to close on its own.

“What should we do?” Tala yelled over the whale of the siren.

Deni pulled a small light from her pocket and shined it around the room. Aiden had his own light, which is how he guided the Maven and the boys out of the fallow field.

“Deni,” Aiden called over the noise when he had
returned with the others. “Stay-with-them.” He hurried to the door and opened it. He quickly shut it again and returned to the fearful crowd.

“Fire,” he yelled over the noise.

“Shouldn’t we get out of here?” Mathis screamed in his tiny high-pitched voice.

The sirens stopped.

“We should stay and put keep all doors closed,” Deni instructed in the dim silence.

“Yes,” Aiden agreed.

“Fire in the engine room,” a calm, female, robotic voice came on the central intercom. “All emergency medical personnel needed in the engine room. All other passengers stay where you are until the smoke dissipates.”

“How long will that be?” Benai asked with a quivering voice.

Sitting down, Teltel answered, “As long as it takes.” Teltel put his hand on Benai’s back and patted softly. “Use the light from your transmitter.”

Benai jammed his hand into his pocket and then another. “I left it in the fallow field,” he said with panic.

“Here,” Mathis said, turning on his transmitter that quickly gave a bright glow. “Take mine.”

Benai took the transmitter and pointed it around the room as he took a deep breath.