Guardians (Caretaker Chronicles Book 2) (30 page)

Sitting at the desk, Ethan rubbed the familiar
bump of the thought blocker behind his ear and felt the sun streaming in on his
face. He was healing quickly, but between being lost in the caves and the
strange paralysis, he’d lost weeks of his life. Weeks of Polara’s drawings,
weeks of holding sweet Rigel to his chest and singing him to sleep. Weeks of
laughing with and loving Aria. Weeks of conversations with Kaia.

He heard her voice now, downstairs. She’d come
for a quick visit, but she’d have to be back at the base soon. She was the
engineering chief on a battleship now, and she was spending a lot of time
training. This new alien threat, while not fast-moving, was ominous. He didn’t
like her being at the front of it, but he saw why the military forces needed
her.

Ethan didn’t feel like walking downstairs. His
legs had the singular numb sensation that came on and off ever since his
collapse. Perhaps he could simply read for a few moments until she came.

Where was his missive? When had he had it last?
He glanced at his pack, propped in the corner of the room. Reaching over, he
hauled it to him and found the missive in the little protected pocket where he’d
stored it. It connected to the wireless power and bloomed to life as he pulled
it out.

There, on the screen, were the photos he’d taken
in the Flowstone Room, with the dazzling white flowstone covering the walls,
and the delicate symbols etched into it.

He tapped the computer console on the desk and
the monitor and keyboard glowed. He pulled up his Xardn program and entered the
symbols he knew, then began on the ones he didn’t.

But Ikastn hadn’t been studied extensively, and
the symbols he found in the program didn’t match these.

What was the room filled with these symbols? Was
it simply an art gallery? A map? It seemed, most likely, to be a story, based
on the words he could decipher. But was it mythology? History? A tourist’s
guide to the caves of Minea?

What were the strange figures that had helped
them out of the cave trying to say?

He loved this about language study. The many ways
and the many reasons that populations took the time to write down what they
knew fascinated him.

He tried harder. He thought he recognized the
phrase, “Sleeping on their (or his or her) journey through the stars.”

Perhaps it was about the humans? He continued
sketching and typing, puzzling out the possible translations.

One word, a noun, was etched above each entrance
to the flowstone room. Ethan entered it into the program, and several related
words came up: safety, protection, security, shelter, but none of them were
quite right. He had used one very like it before. He reached into the desk
drawer and extracted his journal from Ship 12-22. He thumbed to the early years
on the ship, when he had written of his desire to get his family to Minea, to a
place they would be safe. As he found it, the meaning came to his mind like the
tune of a familiar song. He knew this word:

It was
sanctuary
.

The Flowstone Room had felt sacred because it was
sacred. It was a place of safety, a sanctuary, for the creatures. But what did
they need protection from? And what were all the other symbols?

He was deeply engaged in the search for meaning
when he heard Kaia’s voice behind him. He turned to see that she had brought
him a small flying drone with a tray atop it. It was entirely crafted from
junk.

“You can fly this downstairs when you need a
drink or a snack and Aria can just send it right up,” Kaia said brightly.

Ethan smiled. “I hope to be getting my own snacks
soon.”

A look of concern crossed Kaia’s features, and
she changed the subject. “How are you feeling?”

Ethan shrugged. He wanted to say that he was
fine, but he had found long ago that it did no good to lie to Kaia. “Just
feeling all the time I’ve wasted.”

Kaia nodded. “I know that feeling. The only remedy
for it is to stop wasting time.”

Ethan laughed. She was right.

“What are you working on here?” she asked,
gesturing toward the screen.

“It’s a room full of petroglyphs we found while
we were underground.”

Kaia’s eyes widened. “That looks like Xardn!”

“It’s Ikastn, a branch language of Xardn. The
syntax is different, and there are words I don’t recognize, but overall I’m
figuring out some of it. And between you and me, I don’t like it.”

“What is it?”

“There’s something off about these. On Earth we
often found in petroglyphs what we thought to be histories of various groups,
or mythical stories. But these words aren’t supporting that interpretation.”
With Kaia, the strongest person he knew, he felt he could voice his growing
dread. “Kaia, what if cave drawings aren’t just interesting history? What if
they aren’t just art or calendars or records of what a group ate and where to
find the best hunting?”

Kaia spoke guardedly, as if she didn’t want to
hear the answer to her next question. “What else would they be?”

“Warnings.”

***

Ethan was pleased that Kaia had a few hours free after
her training session that night. She came by to share dinner with them. Ethan
looked at his family: Aria, Kaia, Polara, and Rigel, sitting snugly on Kaia’s
lap. When they were all together, it felt like home.

He felt much stronger, and to keep his recovery
going they’d procured a special meal by sending out to New Alliance for steaks.

“Man, I miss the AAU,” Ethan joked, turning the
steaks on the backyard grill. The Minean summer evening was pleasant.

Kaia smiled.

“Why can’t we have an AAU here?” Aria asked. “It
would be wonderful for the hungry Rigo children to have an on-demand food
maker. I don’t know what they eat over there from day to day.”

“It’s just not practical on a large scale,” Kaia
explained. “The amount of energy it takes to reassemble atoms is massive, even
when you’re only feeding a small number of people. Imagine what it would be
like to power one in every home here. It’s not such a challenge on a ship, when
you have an SL drive two decks away where it can get that kind of power.”

Ethan shrugged. “Manual labor it is, then.”

Aria went inside to get the plates, and returned
with one in each hand.

“Ethan,” she said, “I was grabbing Luis’s plates,
but the HHSD sent out those bulletins yesterday about running everything
through the sanitizer before using it.” Luis’s plates didn’t fit in the
sanitizer, and the one time they had forced one in, it had exploded. “Shall we
just use the old plates for now? They’ve been through it already.”

Ethan nodded. “We probably should. Just don’t
mention it to Luis if he comes by.”

“I’ll leave them proudly displayed,” she said,
turning over the green-glazed dinner plate she was holding. “He makes the most
beautiful things. And they grow Taim pretty well, too!” Aria went back inside.

Ethan shot Kaia a questioning glance.

“The little plants growing everywhere,” she
explained. “She calls them—” Ethan saw that the word had flown from her memory,
even though she’d just heard it.

“Taim,” he finished for her. Kaia nodded.

“How is your memory, now that you’re over at the
base?”

Kaia seemed relieved to discuss it. “Actually, my
engineering knowledge seems to be mostly intact. I still remember useless
diagrams from hundred-year-old Earthships, but my mother’s first name
disappears all the time. I don’t understand it.”

“The brain is a complex thing,” Ethan said. “Even
with all we know, many of the specifics are still a mystery. It can do strange
things.” He thought of the figures, wondering if he had truly seen them or if
they were just the products of his strained mind. “But you’ve still got your
engineering knowledge. That’s great for you and for the fleet.”

Kaia looked at him conspiratorially. “Actually,
there’s one piece of engineering terminology that I keep losing, too. I can
remember it when I’m not under pressure, but I’m terrified that someday I’m
going to have to remember it in an important situation and it won’t be there.”

“It will.”

“Ethan.” Her voice was somber, and the sound of
it caught at his breath. He stopped and looked at her.

He saw her then, for the first time in a long
time. He saw her star-colored hair, the deep creases around her gray eyes. He
saw the slight trembling of her hands and he saw a fear behind her eyes that
pierced him.

She was looking down at her hands, repeating a
phrase. “Angular velocity,” she said in a small voice. “Angular velocity.”

Ethan reached for her hand. “Something to do with
the ship?”

“Yes. How it is moving. I seem to be able to
remember it in many contexts, but when I’ve done the battle simulations it
escapes me.”

“It will be there, Kaia, when you need it.”

She looked at him, those gray eyes doubtful. “I
hope so, Ethan.” Then, lightening the mood, she squeezed his fingers, “Maybe I’ll
just have to write it on my hand.”

He loved that she could always pull a serious
situation back to a cheerful one. Well, almost always. He smiled at her. “How
is the alien situation?”

Kaia sighed. “We still can’t figure out what the
Asgre want.”

“The Asgre?”

Kaia glanced at him. “These aliens are called the
Asgre. We have heard a few cryptic messages from them. They are here for their
property, but we don’t know what that is. They won’t respond to our
communications. Don’t tell anyone any of this, by the way. It’s all top secret.”
Ethan pretended to zip his lips, and they smiled at each other, remembering a day
long ago.

***

Kaia had gone home, the last of the leftovers had
been put away, and the Taim had been scrubbed for the last time today. They
would be back tomorrow, and the dishes still needed clearing, but Ethan pushed
the thought out of his mind and relished the few minutes he and Aria had
together alone. The children were asleep. Her head was tipped onto his
shoulder, and the contentment he felt was even sweeter contrasted with the
terror of the last few weeks. It was all he had wanted, to be home, and even
the ominous ship over the city couldn’t spoil the moment.

They talked of the last few weeks, of their loneliness,
of their moments of despair. Ethan told her about the wonders of the cave, and
some of its horrors.

Aria told him about the crop blight, the
mysterious Minean Fever, and about her new friends the Rigos and their
tragedies. She showed him a photo on her missive of Daniel and his mother and sisters
the first day she’d visited them. She told him about how Gaynes had treated the
boy, and Ethan promised to report the cruel man to the Colony Offices.

“I don’t know what he was thinking!” Aria said. “To
be so heartless.”

Ethan felt himself tense. He knew. Though he’d
never read Gaynes’s mind, he’d heard the thoughts of cruel people like him
during those first rough months on Minea.

“He sounds like the kind of person whose thoughts
are as dark as their actions,” he said quietly, and Aria sat up and looked into
his eyes.

“Oh, Ethan! Your telepathy! I forgot to tell you!”

“Tell me what?” he reached for her hand, unable
to discern if she had something good to tell him or something bad.

“Rigel!” she said, her voice higher than usual. “Kaia
says he’s telepathic, too!”

Though her eyes were shining with excitement, her
words were like blows.

“And it makes sense. That’s why he doesn’t talk!
He just plants his ideas in our heads and we bring him whatever he needs!” He
saw why she was so happy. This explained so many of Rigel’s worrisome quirks.
But Ethan closed his eyes, unable to share her enthusiasm.

He was quiet a long time. When he opened his
eyes, Aria was gazing at him quietly.

“I’m sorry,” he offered.

She shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. I remember how
it was for you.” They sat uncomfortably. “But—” she began, “it
is
a
gift, Ethan. An amazing one. Maybe with your help, Rigel can . . .
grow into it.”