Space Junque (13 page)

The room went woozy. Every molecule in Char's body felt effervescent, tingling.

She didn't think she had closed her eyes, but suddenly she was on the ground under clear and clean blue sky. The matriarch and the girls were there too, and Durga, but the Empanii were gone.

They were on a mountain beside a gigantic statue of a man with wide-spread arms. A cool ocean breeze came up from a bay to the east. At the foot of the mountain Char saw a compound of buildings.

They were in Corcovado.

The Jake Empani had remained, still holding Rani's hand. Her eyes were closed, and her breathing was erratic. Durga sat down beside her. After a few minutes Rani exhaled a last time, and as her body died her soul was set free.

At least, that was Char's impression. Rani's body seemed no more than an empty container. A radiant, translucent Rani hovered above them, smiling at Durga. Char had the intense feeling that the Jake Empani should have wings. It floated up to Rani, and then they were gone.

Gods. Empani. Teleportation. Mutation. Visible souls. The old reality was gone; all life would operate under a new system now.

Char felt lonely.

It was a gift from Asherah. That's how Durga explained the miracle of their teleportation. Maybe that's what the goddess told Durga, but Char hadn't forgotten her first time with an Empani.
 
One of Samael's glories.
 
It was more complicated than Asherah was saying.

"Some miracle," Char joked. "Now we have to climb down the mountain."

Geraldo greeted them as they entered a tiled square at the center of the compound. She expected him to be relieved to learn that Rani was dead, but he seemed truly sorry. Conversely, he took the news of Mike's death better than she’d anticipated, confirming Char's opinion that he was not to be trusted.

"We've had our own sad accident in that regard." He kept alternating his attentions from Durga to Char, obviously unable to fathom one so young being in charge. He ignored the matriarch.

When Geraldo looked at Char, she still got the creeps. She would be locking her bedroom door.

"My poor father died in his sleep last night," Geraldo said. "We think he choked on something."

Choked on the poison you fed him more like.
 
Shib, Char couldn't abide that man for seven minutes, and Rani had had to for seven years.

Durga got to the point. "Asherah wants us to make safe haven for the girls who will come here. The matriarch will be in charge."

"I am honored to meet you." Geraldo nodded to the old woman. Char didn't believe for an instant that he was sincere. "
We've
 
been preparing for years. No resources have been spared. The best materials from around the world have gone into the buildings."

The girls were to stay in a barracks-style structure with a garden between it and the square. The tall building across the square with a view of the ocean housed the administrative offices and Geraldo's quarters.

Durga and Char glanced at each other. There would be some changes made.

"Do you have a meeting room?" Char said.

"Our assembly hall is beautiful. It's on the top floor of the administration building with a magnificent view of --"

"Very good," Char said. "Right now, the girls need to rest. We all do. We'll convene at the assembly hall tomorrow morning at nine o'clock."

She was going to have to learn to work with the guy, but not now.

By the time the girls were all settled, it was late. Char had never gotten used to the rotating day-night-day-night of space, but now the prospect of hours and hours of darkness seemed odd.

She said goodnight to little Maribel last. "I saw mama," she said as Char kissed her forehead.

"Yes, sweetie. You did."

"Will she come back?"

"No, hon. Asherah gave us all a present, as Durga said. Remember Rani's soul, when we saw it return to the All? Your mama's soul was gone too, but Asherah let you see her one more time."

"Will my soul go to the All someday?"

"Yes," Char said. "Yes, it will."

And she knew it was true.

--o0o--

Night was taking too long, and Char couldn't sleep. She
 
opened her window to let in the ocean breeze, bracing cold at four in the morning. She leaned against the sill and listened to the waves breaking on the shore.

A bird cried out, and the lights of the compound fell on a white heron flying over the trees and up the mountain.

She had to get outside. Go for a walk. See the ocean. One last time, she pulled on her flight pants. First thing tomorrow, she was going to find some clean clothes and never wear these things again.

Too bad her compad didn't work down here.

Despite the lack of an electronic navigator, she easily found the shore. The moon was full and bright. The beach was a long, wide stretch with a gentle slope of foothills to the west and short waves breaking on the sand of the eastern bay. On a large rock not far from shore, she could just make out another heron.

Corcovado must indeed be blessed by the gods. The fresh water from the artesian wells was delicious and abundant, and she was still amazed by how sweet the air smelled.

And she could see the stars! Corcovado could be a true haven.

If only Jake were here to share it. He was the real hero in this, though he'd never accept the label. He’d known there was something terribly wrong back at the airport. He didn't have to rescue her from the terminal when the DOGs attacked. He could have kept out of harm's way until everything calmed down.

She wouldn't let Jake's memory die. She couldn't crawl back into an apartment somewhere, threaten to become a ghost. So many had sacrificed their lives, if unwillingly -- Jake, Rani, Tyler.

She would honor them by helping to build Corcovado. Design a hydroponics system. Keep Geraldo away from the girls.

A comet streaked across the sky and another immediately after. A meteor shower. But as she watched, it dawned on her that this was no meteor shower. It was debris falling into de-orbit. Something hit the atmosphere every few seconds. Space junk everywhere.

Or
 
the Space Junque
. Before Jake was killed, he hadn't yet set a course. The ship was drifting with no established orbit. She searched the stars -- and spotted something moving, something not on fire.

The hydroponics annex. It would have to be something that large to see with the bare eye. Cripes, she wished she hadn't seen it. Now she would always be aware of it circling the planet, reminding her of everything that had been lost up there.

Wait a minute. The shades! She pulled the ISS shades out of her flight pants and switched them to night vision. They immediately locked on a large chunk of hull debris. Not on fire, so it must be in orbit. She widened the frame.

It wasn't a chunk of debris, and it wasn't in orbit. It
 
was
 
the
 
Space Junque
, intact, but heading for the earth. It was going to fall somewhere close, out in the bay.

At around five thousand feet -- according to the shades -- the cargo bay opened and the orbit runner buzzed out of the hold like a wasp. It hovered in the air as the
 
Space Junque
 
plunged into the sea.

The sound of wrenching and snapping metal lasted less than a minute, like the last groans of a dying beast. The poor
 
Space Junque
 
seemed to give out a death gasp as oxygen escaped from inside, and then the sea swallowed the beast whole. A tear slid past the shades and down Char's cheek.

R.I.P. Space Junque.

The runner swooped down and took a pass along the shoreline then zoomed up into the sky. With the shades, Char could see Jake at the runner's controls, a wild grin on his face as he took the craft upward again and into a loop. He finally set down about a hundred feet from her.

The bubble canopy popped open and Jake climbed out. He walked along the water's edge, and she watched him fall to his knees and kiss the wet sand as a wave receded. It was a telling gesture, and it eased Char's mind a little. His
 
Junque
 
was gone, but he kissed the ground instead of cursing it.

He sat back on his heels and ran his hands through his hair, pushing it off his face. Then he saw her.

Char ripped the shades from her face and ran to him. Only feet away, she stopped. It might not be Jake. But then an Empani wouldn’t pull a loop de loop or drop to its knees to kiss the cold wet sand.

"Jake." She smiled her welcome, and he reached up and put his hands on her hips with that sly twinkle in his eyes.

"I'm going to have to break my promise, Meadowlark. I won't be able to show you the captain's quarters."

"That's all right." She leaned over and kissed his forehead. "You'll still get your dessert."

"No, Char." He pulled her onto his lap and they fell back onto the sand. Another wave washed around them. "I want so much more than dessert from you."

The pounding surf matched her heartbeat, and the space junk meteors overhead were more spectacular than fireworks. With Jake’s warm slow kiss Char wanted to tear his clothes off right there, but the tide was coming in and they were already covered with sand and saltwater. They moved to the rock where she'd been sitting.

"What happened?" They both spoke at the same time.

Char thought of the Empani and said, "Mine's more complicated. You go first."

"I was in the cargo hold and the loading ramp's warning light came on. I figured I was a dead man, but I was standing right by the little runner ship so I climbed inside and sealed the canopy. When the door opened, the runner was swept out into space. I figured out how to link to the
 
Junque
 
and open the cargo hold to get back inside."

He kissed her again. "I thought I'd lost my mind. There were no breaches. It was like all of you had just vanished. Using my amazing powers of deduction, I figured Asherah had somehow transported everyone to Corcovado, which is what you said she wanted."

"You didn't."

"No." He grinned and kissed Char’s nose. "I didn’t. I scanned ground communications and picked up Geraldo saying he had you and the girls in the compound."

"Very clever."

"How is Rani?"

“Oh, Jake.” Char's heart compressed. "I'm so sorry. Rani died."

Tears filled Jake’s eyes, and he looked away. After a few minutes he said, "I took too long. I never should have stored the medicine in the cargo bay."

"No, Jake. Antibiotics wouldn't have helped. The DOG hit her gut with a disruptor. No one can live without their intestines. Nothing could have saved her."

For now, Jake had to grieve in the old way. And it struck Char how terrible was death in that old godless world. Everything was different now. Could it truly be the end of the world—the end of Rani?—if the gods were real?

She would tell him tomorrow about Rani's soul.

They watched the light show in the sky until the tiniest hint of first light rimmed the horizon. A new day was coming. A new world. The rosy crescent fattened and yellowed into white, and the light danced like fire on the bay.