Planets Falling (32 page)

I think about Troll’s compound.  The same must have applied to the food and drink it provided to us.  I suppose I was naive to think the robots were tending a farm for us.  "What's a raw material?"  I ask.

"Just about anything can be reconfigured.  Most simply, our waste."

"By waste -" I'm afraid I won't like the answer.

"Leftover food, excrement, and urine are the most basic ingredients.  But even that stuff runs out of key nutrients.  The rest we find in the fields and the ocean or grow in our garden.  Etch occasionally hunts and fishes for us as well."

My appetite wanes. I push the milk away.  "You eat compost."

Grey laughs.  "You'll get used to it.  I am the one who grows the crops.  I'll show you in the morning."  He gathers a robe and gestures to me.  "Why don't you try out your leg?"

"It's broken.  I can't use it yet.  It'll take months to mend properly."

"On your own, perhaps. However, basic field medicine always includes a kit for annealing bones.  Come on."  He reaches to me.

I sit up and swing my legs over the cot.  Grey holds my hands and I stand.  I'm a little shaky, but my sore leg holds.  Grey drapes the robe around my shoulders.

"Come on out for a bit.  It'll help you heal by keeping active, with caution of course."

We leave the small building and enter the courtyard of a small, makeshift compound of metallic buildings.  The Fuerst is in the distance and the ocean is only a couple of hundred yards away.  My dream self didn't notice the wonderful salt air and warm breeze.  The artificial light is dimmer, less harsh than it was when we entered earlier.  "How long was I unconscious?"

Grey whispers, "This is late evening of the third day."

I'm about to voice my astonishment when we round the corner of a curious, humming building.  There, sitting around a merry fire are Theo, English, Samuel, Bets, and Etch.  Theo, English, and Samuel wear the strange clothing that Grey's donning.  Bets is still in her hunting clothes, stretched out, warming her bare feet by the flames.  Sitting next to her is a muscular young woman with a worn, kind face.  Bets exclaims, "Marksman, you spend more time out cold than awake.  Welcome back to the living once again."

"Good seeing you on the mend, Amy," Samuel grins.  He's trimmed his beard and looks ten years younger.

Theo hands me a cup of white liquor.  "This is Grey's special sauce.  Go easy on it."

Grey takes the cup from me.  "Until the meds cycle out of your system, best not to tempt fate.  Amy, I think you're acquainted with everyone here except Minns."

The woman stands up and extends her hand.  "Pleased to meet you.  They tell me that you're a pilot, though you don't know it.  I'm not sure to tell you whether you're fortunate or cursed.  Perhaps a bit of both."

Etch growls.  "Minns, she has a gift.  Amy, forgive her rudeness."

Minns continues grasping my hand.  "We have a bit of a history with another pilot that's all. It's one of the reasons we're stranded here."  She lets go and sits back down next to Bets.

"You've created a small village here.  How do you remain hidden?"

Minns answers.  "Smoke and mirrors.  The protective field you've entered hides us from view overhead.  We are only seen by ships in space when we want to be found.  We're in exile from the rest of our kind you see."

"Let me try to explain."  Grey sits in a strange canvas chair.  "We discovered something that's considered tempting to some factions up there." He points to the sky.  "It was on a planet that my father was trying to make suitable for life and eventual colonization.  You know what a planet is?"

I think of Troll and its education.  "Yes, I do."

"Well, things went horribly wrong.  We called it planet C9 - it opened up a hole of sorts.  All kinds of nasty creatures came out."

"In a brown fog that your dad created and the monsters highjacked."  I say confidently.

Grey seems surprised at my ability to make the connection.  "Well, yes.  The hole provided a potential way to travel all around space, but it was unstable and eventually destroyed."

I continue.  "And your people don't want you spreading the news because they may look for another door of this sort?  Were you with the Institute?"

Grey's gaping mouth betrays his continued surprise.  "Yes and yes.  The Institute did not want us to let others know.  Hence, our exile in the one place where people are least likely to look - the one technologically quarantined planet in the known universe."

I turn to Etch.  "Time to tell them what we know."

We explain my dream, omitting Fromer's participation.  Both Etch and I feel that it is our secret.  As I finish talking, a female voice asks, "Is there another portal here on earth?"

Grey stands.  "Hi Gorian.  Amy and Etch are talking spooky pilot stuff.  Yes, it seems that the phenomenon that occurred on C9 is cropping up here."  Gorian’s the woman who accompanied Grey when we first arrived.  She's fair haired, with flawless skin.  Her hands are covered with grease, which she's wiping away on a cloth.

"How'd it happen?"  Gorian takes a sip from Grey's cup.

Minns laughs.  "Gorian, you're never satisfied with things to just happen.  You've got to work all the angles."

"Forgive me for being curious Minns.  What're we going to do about this?"

Grey turns to me, grinning.  "Gorian is our engineer.  She's responsible for fabricating this compound and keeping us comfortable in our exile."  He squeezes her shoulders.  "And she keeps me sane."

Minns groans, while Etch chuckles.  He's eating some kind of fish now. I'm unsure whether it's been cooked.

Grey looks at Theo.  "I think we need some time to interpret what's facing us and what we need to do."  Theo nods.

"It's time for me to ask some questions," I say.  "Are there others we haven't met?"

Grey sits back down.  "There were originally a large number of us on the planet C9.  It's hard to explain, but one of our colleagues, another pilot, lost her way."

"Went wankers from the sounds of it," English interjects.

"Melat was her name.  She collapsed the planet with her ship called the Raven."  Grey smacks his palms together and makes a whooshing sound.  I'm more than shocked.  How can something so massive be destroyed? Grey continues, "Gorian, a nauron named Iggy, Minns, my uncle, and I were the only survivors.  Etch rescued us."

"Where's this nauron and your uncle?"  I ask.

"My uncle passed a few months ago."

"I'm sorry."

"He never quite recovered from some injuries.  Iggy, well, he or she, we can never quite decide what sex he prefers, jumped in the ocean a month ago and we haven't seen him since."

"So, a nauron's a fish?"

Gorian jumps in.  "More like an intelligent, human-sized frog.  We suspect he, she, went off to reproduce."

"How's that possible?  Are there more of its kind in the ocean?"

Etch laughs heartily. "No, his – or her- species can reproduce on its own.  No sex needed."

Kind of like some plants, I suppose.  I'm sleepy and it's showing.  Grey gathers his things and shows me back to my beloved cot.  I'll learn more in the morning.

Chapter 54
- Thresh

I open my eyes and I'm dismayed to find myself back in Thresh.  She's in a dark room, with a blindfolded and bound man in the corner.  Thresh is tired and angry.  She's in the village we'd visited a few days ago.  The man is dressed in blue and white robes with thin alabaster skin.   I recognize him as the town elder.

"Where did they go?  This is your last chance."

He croaks, "They headed south.  The man, Theo, could talk with birds.  He warned us of you and your evil.  You will not prosper in this world."

"Did they tell you what they were looking for?"

"No.  They did warn us of you, thankfully.  As your army descended on us, most of our townspeople were able to escape thanks to them.  You'll get no help from the rest of us.  May your soul go to hell."

"No need for your assistance anymore."  Thresh pulls out a short, thick staff and beats the man’s head.  He screams once and then falls silent.  I watch in revulsion from Thresh's eyes, unable to do anything as the man's head is reduced to bits of skin, bone, and brain.

She steps out into the cool night, the crisp air wrapping around her like a blanket.  There are more grubs.  Apparently, the fog is gathering around her.  She has more men and women with her -recruits from nearby towns, I'd guess.  The beautiful, colorful houses are now smoking hulks.  Bodies are arranged in piles around the town commons, legs and arms entwined.

I feel something like elation welling up inside of her.  She lifts her hands and fog oozes in from the shadows.  It swirls around the bodies and they begin to tremble and twitch.  One stands and then another.  Before long at least a hundred corpses are assembled before her.  I can hear her whispering to them and they shuffle toward her.  The living people in the courtyard are clearly terrified.  Only the thought of being torn to pieces by the grubs prevents them from running in terror.

"My children," she says lovingly to the slumped, swaying bodies.  "I have a job for you.  Go south from here and look for the one who is like me.  "When you find her, kill her companions and bring her back to me."  It's not the dead minds she's directing but the ooze animating them.  The fog's using the sad, empty shells as a way to transform and hunt.

We need to close that portal.

The bodies begin shuffling into the darkness, a symphony of soft moans and groans purring from their dead lips.  As they move along the coast, they'll be sure to encounter our camp.  Whether they'll be able to penetrate the invisible fence that Etch has fashioned, I don't know.  But once they find us, Thresh will know where to go.  And the grubs are relentless.

Thresh glares at her ragged soldiers, who are clearly mortified.  "As you can see my loyal companions, you can serve us even if you're dead.  So, do not fail me.  Now, go and search for those people who escaped the town.  Bring them back to me.  It doesn't matter whether they're alive or dead."

The men and women gather their packs and horses, scrambling like crabs on the beach by the Fuerst.  Within moments, they vanish in the haze of the dawn's light.  I don't want to be here in this woman's head any longer but I can't seem to tear myself away.  The sensation is similar to the suffocating fear I felt while descending into Troll’s dungeon.

Thresh enters one of the few houses that haven't been destroyed.  It's an oddly cheerful building, with a light pink exterior, blue shutters, and an expansive porch.  Oil lamps light the threshold.  She closes the door behind her and sighs, as if the horrors she's inflicted are simply the burden of a hard day's work.  A slight, young woman in a light blue dress greets her cautiously.  She's clearly frightened but trying desperately to hide her emotions.  I realize that this woman is the owner of the house and that she used to have family here.  She’s now alone.

Thresh speaks in a tone I've never heard from her - one of carefree happiness. "Is she awake yet?"

"Yes ma'm.  She's eating some mush and cream."

They're speaking of Eliza.  My entire being expands with anger.  I want to stab Thresh and yet I'm trapped inside her mind.  For a moment, she pauses, sensing my strong emotion.  I need to control myself to avoid being found out.

And there's my beautiful little girl, looking at Thresh with her clear blues eyes and cereal dripping from her face.  She smiles and says, "Hi mommy."

A thread deep within me snaps.  I push my entire being into Thresh and find myself occupying her completely.  Thresh is gone and I'm standing in that kitchen with my daughter.  I'm expending every ounce of energy to stay this way.

I see Thresh’s reflection in the woman’s eyes.   Thresh is still wearing the tattered red dress, her hair braided down the side.  Her eyes are wild but blank.  I make Thresh say, "Stab me, now.  In the heart."

The woman in blue steps back, trembling.

"Do it.  Before Thresh returns."

The woman is motionless.  I search the room for a knife, see a butcher's blade, and lunge toward it.  I'm about to plunge it into Thresh's chest when I'm feeling tugged away - I'm stirring in my cot back at camp.  I can no longer control Thresh's arms but can still speak.  I turn toward the woman.  "Listen to me.  I'm Eliza's mother in Thresh's body.  I don't know how long I have."

The woman stammers, "If this is a trick, I'll soon be dead like the rest of my family.  I'm Magarat."

"Magarat, protect my daughter, please.  I'll come get her and rescue you as well.  Be strong."

The tugging grows stronger.  I stare at Eliza, who's oblivious and making quite a mess.  The knife drops from Thresh's hand and the pull's irresistible.  The room fades and I'm in my cot, with Gorian standing over me with her impossibly large eyes.  "Hey there," she says.

I look at her, shaking.  "I've got to kill that woman."