Helium3 - 1 Crater (34 page)
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THIRTY-FIVE
T
hey were found by a Russian patrol. Crater was leading Pegasus, but they were both staggering, exhausted and injured. When Crater saw the Russians, he first assumed they were crowhoppers and knew it was all over for him and the Peg. But they were gathered up and given water and food. Crater was invited to sit in a fastbug and, somehow, they made room for the warhorse on a truck.
Crater went in and out of consciousness. When he woke, he found himself sleeping on silken sheets. When he switched on a light, he saw it was the most ornate tube he'd ever seen. The baroque, filigreed furniture seemed to belong in a nineteenthcentury historical romance. He lapsed back into a deep sleep until finally he woke once more, found a tunic, leggings, and boots laid out for him on a settee, dressed, and pushed open the tube hatch. There he discovered a guard dressed in the fanciest uniform Crater had ever seen, all scarlet and black with gold braid, buttons, and epaulets. The guard ordered him back inside. “Food and drink will come,” he said in Russian.
“What about Pegasus?” Crater asked. “What about my horse?”
“Your horse is quite healthy,” the guard answered.
Relieved, Crater went back inside the tube. A few minutes later, a woman, dressed in a green tunic with a high collar, appeared carrying a tray of food. It was a thick strip of beef with a side of fluffy potatoes and a bowl of green beans. There was also a bottle of vodka, a bottle of mineral water, and two glasses. Crater skipped the vodka but dug into the excellent food and drank the entire bottle of water. He felt immediately better and began itching to explore. Before he could figure out how to escape his ornate prison, the woman in the green tunic returned. “The Czarina will see you now,” she said.
Crater followed the woman through the corridors of New St. Petersburg, which were sumptuously decorated with statues of Russian heroes and paintings of the mother country.
The people in the corridor looked well-fed and content. The shopping area was filled with many stores, selling fine consumer goods. They reached a hatch that had the seal of the old Russian czars, a double-headed eagle. The woman in the green tunic said, “This is the Czarina's palace.”
Crater followed the woman through more ornate tubes until they reached one that had a throne of gold-painted mooncrete with cushions of red and black velvet. A big guard walked up and shoved Crater to his knees on the scarlet carpet that led to the throne. From behind thick curtains, Czarina Zornaâ dressed in regal robes of red, white, and blackâemerged and sat on the throne. “State your business,” she said.
Daring to lift his head, Crater said, “I have brought you something that belongs to you and your people. It was in the bag tied to my horse.”
Czarina Zorna nodded to a guard who pitched the bag to the floor in front of Crater. “Do you mean this one?”
“Yes, ma'am. Have you looked inside?”
“Do you think we are thieves? No, we have not gone through your personal things. So, tell me, what in this bag is so precious that you would dare cross the Sea of Serenity to bring it to me and my people?”
“Bones.”
Crater's answer startled the Czarina. She drew in a quick breath, and a guard was moved to draw his elk sticker from its sheath. The Czarina raised her hand to the guard, who reluctantly lowered the knife. “And whose bones might they be?” she asked.
Crater opened the bag, then unfolded a purple cloth within to reveal the yellow bones and the skull. Reverently, he placed the skull on the carpet. “These are the remains of Yuri Gagarin, ma'am,” Crater said. “The first man in space.”
The Czarina's eyes widened. She stood and, with a hesitating step, walked down onto the carpet, then knelt before the skull and the bag of bones. “The bravest Russian,” she whispered.
“Yes,” a deep voice boomed, “and he is my gift to you, my dear.”
Crater looked toward the voice and there stood Colonel Medaris, splendid in a bemedaled military uniform and cavalry boots. He walked up alongside Crater. “You were supposed to deliver this package to me, Crater,” he said in a severe tone.
“But I will forgive you if you'll tell me how you got here.”
“I rode a horse, sir.”
The Colonel lifted a single eyebrow. “You are an interesting young man,” he said.
“My gillie was killed along the way,” Crater added.
“Is that so? I am sorry to hear that. It was an interesting artifact although illegal.”
“It knew that, sir.”
“We also found some odd devices with this boy, their purposes unknown,” the Czarina said as she rose. “What was most intriguing was a container of water that my chemists tell me is perfectly pure, even purer than the melted water ice of the lunar poles. Where did you get it?”
“From the dust of the Sea of Serenity.”
“Impossible,” she scoffed.
“I can find water there,” Crater said. “And I know how to bring it to the surface.”
The Colonel and the Czarina traded glances. The Colonel said, “It seems I've underestimated you from the start, my boy.”
The Colonel noticed the Czarina was frowning and said, “You are not pleased, my dear?”
“Are these bones a bribe to convince me to let your monorail cross my land?”
“No, my lady,” he said. “It is an engagement gift. I have come to ask your hand in marriage.”
The Czarina's frown deepened. She nodded to the guards, who reverently picked up the skull and restored it to the duffel bag, then carried the bones away. She turned back to the Colonel, saying, “We will create a fine memorial for the man who led the way for all of us into space. I thank you, Colonel.”
Then a small smile replaced her frown and she said, “I shall consider your proposal, although marriage of royalty to a commoner is a delicate proposition.”
“Yet we would make a great team,” the Colonel answered.
“The future would be ours.”
“Perhaps,” she replied with a regal tilt of her head.
The Czarina climbed the steps to her throne, gesturing for the Colonel to sit before her on the steps. He did so.
“Sir,” Crater said, “if I may ask, how did you get here? I thought your jumpcar was in need of repair.”
“So it was,” the Colonel replied, “but the sheriff dispatched the part by a rental jumpcar.”
“Did the sheriff tell you I was headed to New St. Petersburg?
I didn't think he knew. I didn't tell anyone. I just stole the bones and took off.”
The Colonel shrugged. “There are many spies everywhere.
If there is a thing that needs to be known, I usually know it.”
“Do you know Maria's condition?”
“Of course. I have been in constant contact with her doctors. She is a Medaris, Crater. None so tough in the universe.
She will be fine.”
Crater knew his part in the Colonel's plan was done. He started to leave but the Colonel's voice stopped him. “Crater, thank you. I suppose now you will want your old job back on the scrapes, but I intend to do better. Your ambition, so I've heard, is to be a foreman. Consider it done. You are now a blue banger.”
Crater wanted to be happy. He knew the Colonel expected him to be, and he knew Q-Bess and probably even Petro would be happy for him. But he just couldn't be happy. He was no longer certain he wanted to be a Moontown blue banger. He wasn't even certain he wanted to go back to Moontown at all.
So much had happened. He wasn't the same Crater who'd joined the convoy. Maybe his future was to be a convoy scout. He'd liked doing it well enough. “I will think about it, sir,” he said.
“That's fine,” the Colonel said.
“What happens now?” Crater asked.
“I suppose now things will really get interesting. We're going to build that monorail, assuming the Czarina accepts my idea, and then we may have to fight a little war.”
The Colonel's answer, at least the last part of it, confirmed Crater's worst fear. “But who is the enemy, sir? Who are we fighting and why?”
The Colonel allowed a gentle smile. “We fight the ones who lurk in the darkness, Crater, those who would take away our freedom to live our lives the way we choose. Can we count on you to fight with us?”
Crater didn't know if he could be counted on or not. He still felt it important to know who the enemy was. “If you could give me and Pegasus a ride back to Armstrong City, sir, I would appreciate it.”
“Of course,” the Colonel replied.
Crater left the throne tube and headed to an airlock. There he donned a suit, pulled on a helmet, and went out into the big suck. He needed to get outside where at least he might think and maybe even reach some conclusions.
The sun blazed down, obliterating the stars and casting a golden glow on the dust. Crater looked across the emptiness and thought of his gillie and how it had sacrificed itself. He swore to himself that someday he would go back to where the crowhopper jumpcar had exploded. The gillie had been his friend and deserved at least a prayer said over where it had last breathed, that is if it had any lungs, which, of course, it didn't.
Crater thought about the journey he'd just made and the dangers he'd managed to live through. From the start, the crowhoppers had known too much, had always seemed a step ahead. Were there traitors in the Colonel's circle or on the convoy? If so, who were they? Or was Crater always meant to be a sacrificial lamb, his mission deliberately leaked, so that the sheriff or somebody else could catch the Cycler?
And where was Petro? Had he joined a convoy as the sheriff had suggested? Or did the sheriff know something he wasn't telling?
Crater also thought of Maria, what she had come to mean to him, and also her family. He didn't know if there was any chance of a future with her, but he hoped there might be. Maybe he could be a scout in her company. He just didn't know.
Everywhere Crater looked, there was dust and more dust and the endless expanse of his little planet that Earthians dismissed as the moon. It was a serious little planet, that's what it really was, and also the blessed home for anyone willing to brave its harsh beauty.
Crater was willing. He was willing because of the kindness the people of Moontown had shown him over the years.
He was willing because of Q-Bess, Petro, and all the residents of the Dust Palace. He was willing because of the gillie, and the convoy drivers, and poor, brave Captain Teller who'd given everything just to deliver heel-3 to a desperate Earth that depended on his homeland, the moon.
And, to keep his homeland safe, if it meant fighting in a warâeven though he knew deep in his heart that there was something very peculiar, perhaps even wrong, with the conflict that was about to be foughtâCrater was willing to do even that. He reached for the courage that had always been there, even as he yet doubted its existence.
Let war come if it must
, he thought. He was a boy of the moon. He would fight.
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