The Fifth Civilization: A Novel (16 page)

All Roan could do was grasp the forearms of the beast
holding him in place. He grasped even tighter when he felt the Kotaran’s tail
come up from between his own legs and run up his back.

“Don’t move! Don’t move!” was the chorus Roan heard from
behind, and he could only guess that Jasper had come into the cell with his gun
drawn. Roan prayed he would use it.

“Fox’Lo curse you, avalanche of mud will bury you
.
Only Kotarans will know of life.”

“W…what?” Roan gasped. He was beginning to feel light-headed
as his ears strained under the vice of claws.

“You mission fails.” The Kotaran laughed, a guttural and
terrible thing. “Bauxa is no safe. Bauxa is your death.”

Jasper had indeed slowly inched his way into the chamber,
pistol drawn but trembling in his hand. The mechanic worked his way to the
right of the alien, just inside Roan’s peripheral vision. The way Jasper was
angled, he looked as though any bolt he fired might just hit Roan as well.

“Let him go!” Jasper shouted. The alien rolled his eyes into
his head and muttered something. “Let him go now or I’ll kill you!”
 
After this repeated warning, the alien
brought his eyes back to Roan and muttered something short and sharp. Then he
released his claws from Roan’s ears, scraping the lobes and putting his hands
in the air as if surrendering. His tail also recoiled back to its original
position. Roan rubbed his ears as he took careful steps back, trying to get as
far away from the creature as possible.

Jasper still aimed the gun, but was moving away from the
Kotaran now, too. No one had any idea how far his range extended. “Sit back
against the wall!” Jasper commanded, and the being did so. His sudden
compliance was puzzling.

“Why did you do that?” Roan spat at the alien. “Why the fuck
did you do that?”

The Kotaran snorted. “You blasphemer. That why.”

“Yeah, I get it!” Roan said, spitting some blood that had
worked his way down from his nose. “Did you want to scare me? Did you?”
Cause it worked
.

Kel took Roan by the arm, her tugs implying that beginning
another confrontation was probably not the right course of action. Roan let her
hand sit on his arm but did not respond to her calls of “let’s go.”
 
Instead, he locked eyes with the
Kotaran. “It’s too early in the morning not to have any closure,” Roan told
her.

“There are three gods,” the Kotaran spat. “They drive
universe. They create all life and watch it grow. They make life on planet.”

“What?” Roan couldn’t quite make out what this guy was
talking about. Maybe it was the bad English, or maybe it was the ringing in his
ears.

“You mean, like Eden?”
 
Kel asked. By now she had stopped holding on to Roan’s shoulder. “Is
there a planet where your gods created all life?”

“
My
gods no.
All
gods yes!” The Kotaran flung his
hands in the air as if he were praising someone. “You all controlled by gods
too. But you will be punished for not seeing their truths. You cannot violate
sacred planet.”
 
The Kotaran put his
hands down, as if the spiritual revelation was over. He gave a once-over to the
group, and settled his eyes on Jasper, who was still pointing a pistol at him.
Jasper seemed to tremble at this. “You will die. Grinek kill you.”

“Is he some sort of god?” Roan asked.

A tongue shot out of the Kotaran’s mouth then quickly drew
itself back in. A hiss followed. Roan knew this to be the sign of a negative in
the Kotaran culture, not unlike a shaking head.

“Grinek not god. Blasphemy! But Grinek has been chosen by
gods. Grinek is close to god.”
 
And
the Kotaran put his hands on his knees and lowered his head. In a few seconds,
the only movement from the prisoner was the occasional thumping of his tail.
The conversation was over.

“Who the hell is Grinek?” Roan asked. Neither Moira, Kel,
nor Jasper could answer. Roan decided he didn’t care, and all that mattered was
the coming arrival on Bauxa. The sooner that thing was out of here, the better.
He rubbed his ears and when he retracted his hands they were red with blood.
Everything sounded muffled, and he wondered if blood was seeping into his
eardrums.

“Doctor,” Roan said to Moira, “I think it’s time I had
another check up.”

Moira swabbed some disinfectant on the tips of Roan’s tender
ears and then taped a small bandage to each. If only there were a mirror in the
medical bay so Roan could see how ridiculous he looked, sitting in a grubby
undershirt on a med table. On second thought, a mirror wouldn’t be a good idea.
He already knew Masao, if not the rest of the ship, was going to make fun of
him now.

After a blood test to make sure no Kotaran diseases had
entered his bloodstream courtesy the attacker’s nails, Moira declared Roan fit
to leave. “I wouldn’t be visiting the prisoner again if I were you,” Moira
chided, shaking and examining a vial of Roan’s blood. “Your heart rate is a bit
high, you know.”

Roan hopped down from the bed and gathered his captain’s
jacket. She wasn’t saying anything he hadn’t heard for years. “If you liked my
heart rate, you should check out my liver. Though the good captain did her best
to improve it.”

“I know. I helped convince her to lock that stuff up.”

“The plot thickens. You got an protein bar here?”

Moira gestured to a cabinet. Roan found a bar inside and
tore off the wrapper before shoving it in his mouth. Giving Moira a tip of his
ball cap, he left the medical bay to find Kel waiting in the main exam room.
She appeared fascinated by an eye-scanning machine and Roan suspected she was trying
desperately not to listen to what was being said.

“How do you feel?” Kel asked.

“Never better.”

“Good. Those bandages are very stylish, by the way.”

“Hardy har.”

Kel smacked her hand on the counter, as if that brought some
finality to their banter. “We’ll be at Bauxa in three hours. In fact, we’re
already beginning to pick up their broadcasts.”

“Oh good. What’s going on in the latest telenovels?”
 
Roan didn’t care in the slightest, but
he just wanted to throw the conversation back in her court. It was a little
early to be talking about such mindless things.

“Everyone needs to be on their game today, Nick. Even you. I
know that’s a lot to expect, but these Bauxens are very impatient people. We
show the slightest sign of complacency or that we’re holding something back,
they’ll grow suspicious of us.”
 
Moira walked in and raised her eyebrow at the two of them talking. She
hesitated a bit at the two individuals conversing in her workspace, but Kel
addressed her to dispel the awkwardness.

“Everyone’s been inoculated, right?” Kel knew full well the
answer.

“Yes, captain. We finished that last week as per your
orders. The Seplen flu won’t be bothering us this time, and neither will
dengue, if we stay out of the southern hemisphere.”

“Good.”
 
That was
Kel’s word of the morning, if not the day. She focused her attention again to
Roan. “I have to get to the cockpit. Walk with me.”

Roan happily obliged.

The crew was just beginning to wake up and one could hear
the thump of boots on the metal decks above, below, and around. By oh seven
hundred everyone on the
Colobus
was
scurrying around like rats.

“Jasper will take care of the prisoner,” Kel told Roan as
they navigated the ship’s corridors. “I don’t think we have to worry about him
anymore.”

“Jasper?”

“
No
, Nick, the
prisoner.”
 
She sighed. “A few
Bauxen police are going to be helping us with his transfer.”

“Something to enjoy.”
 
If there was anything more comical than a bunch of fat Bauxens taking on
a nimble Kotaran, Roan didn’t know it. Part of Roan wanted to enjoy that sight
in person, though he was sure he’d want to be elsewhere when the Kotaran easily
dispatched his captors and came for the humans with murder in his bones.

“And I want you, Nick, to pilot the ship in for us. I’ve got
to prepare the
Colobus
for landing. You
can handle that, can’t you? A month away from the controls hasn’t…degraded your
skills?”

He laughed. “I’ve been away from the controls for a lot
longer before. Nothing could take those skills away from me, not even a Kotaran
trying to dig them out of my mind through my ears.”
 
She laughed a little at that, too, which
made Roan feel a bit better. Something told him they weren’t just talking about
piloting. They were now climbing the steps to the cockpit. “Was that all you
wanted to say to me, Kel? Or should I call you Captain?”

She cleared her throat and held her head up high. Each step
she took was deliberate and firm, and Roan was concerned at the sudden change
in attitude.

“I guess you deserve some answers. We haven’t really
talked
in weeks, and I’ve kind of locked
myself in the cockpit.”

“Yes.”

“A lot has happened. Aaron, the Kotarans, your moods…”

“Now,
come on
. You
locking up the liquor, that’s what’s been causing my moods. But I had a nice
talk with Masao this morning, and he thought of a novel way for me to avoid
drinking. You have nothing to worry about there.” They reached the top of the
stairs.

“So I’ve decided…” Kel sighed. That was never a good sign.
“Look, Nick, we’ve been under an unbelievable amount of stress. Being chased
will do that to you.”

Roan said nothing.

“And that hasn’t made it easy to think clearly. Oh, I’ve
thought about this planet, all right. There’s nothing keeping me on Earth.
Nothing keeping me with the Company. This is the greatest adventure I’ll ever
be on.” Kel ran her hands through her black hair. Shook her head. “But Nick,
it’s you I’m thinking about. I don’t know how to read you. Don’t know where
your passions are. I know there’s still an attraction there, between us.”

“Yeah.”

“But I need to know where you stand on things. Are you
coming along with us to this Planet X?”

Roan nodded. He didn’t know where this conversation was
going, but the tone didn’t agree with him.

“Like you said, I crave adventure, Kel. And I got no one
back on Earth, either.”

“Well, here’s the thing, Nick. I have to know if you have
principles. If you’re coming along for something other than me. Because I don’t
know if I can be with anyone a long time. Especially someone who’s…and I’m
sorry to say this, someone who’s spent so much time in the company of death.”

Roan cringed.

“You see, Nick, when I close my eyes all I see are the
bodies of those crewmen. The blood on the floor, on the walls. I can separate
this Planet X from all that, but I can’t separate you from it. And you know what’s
even worth? This mayhem doesn’t seem to bother you at all.”

Getting hit by a brick is hard to accept. There was Kel
Streb in front of him, freighter captain and fellow Euro from the refugee camps.
Lover of anything that tasted of orange, practitioner of yoga even when it was forbidden,
the only woman he ever dated who would agree to go to the gym with him and then
outdo him there. Not a yard away from him, and yet it might well have been light
years.

“You know what, Kel? I see dead bodies, too. Every time I
close my eyes I see Aaron’s burnt body on the ground back in Tokyo. So don’t
think you’re alone in this. And don’t think you’re the only person who meant
anything to me.”

Kel started to say something. Roan didn’t hear it; he banged
on the cockpit door. Joseph opened it and stared out quizzically.

“Out of the chair, fly boy, your new captain’s here,” Roan
said. Joseph rolled his eyes and did as he was told, crawling out through the
hatch. Roan ducked in.

Joseph put up a hand. “The yaw calibration might be a
little—”

“Yeah, yeah,” Roan said, putting his hand on the hatch. “I
can do just fine on my own.” Right before he slammed the hatch shut, Roan
caught a glimpse of Kel staring at the floor.

***

A beeping noise awakened Roan. He snatched the ball cap off
his face and focused on the controls before him. The autopilot had done fine
enough for the past few hours, fine enough for him to catch some sleep, but now
the alarm systems were lighting up. They’d reached the Bauxa system.

 
All at once, the
ship noticeably slowed: the bulkheads whined and the metal groaned after a
month of FTL travel. Out the cockpit window, the stars changed from streaks to
stationary, and Roan knew it was going to stay that way for a while. A bright
orange dot grew larger out the starboard window and Roan recognized it as the
solar system’s largest gas giant, Triseta. They passed by it at a hundred
thousand miles per second.

He’d last seen Bauxa three years ago, having to travel there
to deliver a lithium shipment for a big battery company on the planet. It
turned out the Bauxens were running out of lights to power their BV screens,
and Christ forbid if they had to go a week without gladiator combat beamed in
from Kotara. Also on that same cargo run was a crate containing a selection of
Earth sculptures that had been acquired by a wealthy Bauxen for his own
personal collection—all obtained through legal methods, Roan was sure.

Still, when the neon planet appeared first as a speck in the
distance, Roan grew excited. Finally, their haven.

With each second, the planet grew larger still. If you’d
never seen Bauxa before, the planet was quite a sight. Greens and yellows
radiated from below a murky atmosphere. It wasn’t that the Bauxens had polluted
it, just that they’d never gotten around to cleaning it. Algae made the oceans
green, too, although Roan could hardly criticize that aspect, since the
Caribbean Sea on Earth was now indistinguishable from grass if viewed from
orbit. Two moons circled Bauxa, one of which had a reputation of being a tax
haven and free trade zone. Roan had made more than one stop there. Anything
goes in those parts of the Bauxen Economic Conglomerate.

Bauxen ships flew by outside. Now
those
were spectacular. They resembled caterpillars, segmented into
regions of ovals, yet they still retained the cylindrical shape of many Earth
starships. You could always tell the ones operating at full strength from the
light pulsating through the craft from fore to aft, adding something ethereal
to the insect-like craft. Perhaps Roan could hop a joyride on one while he was
here. Roan even recognized a few Earth ships speeding by at sublight, soon to
go into FTL for a trip back to the Pale Blue Dot.

A beep from a com. Roan answered the receiver.

“Cockpit here.”

“How’s it going up there?” Kel’s voice.

“Situation normal. Anything you want me to know before we
land?”

“Just do what the Bauxens tell you, and try not to have us
burn up in the atmosphere. Silverman was notorious for not inspecting his heat
shield. The
Colobus
hasn’t had to
enter an atmosphere since 2496.”

“Oh.” Roan couldn’t blame the late captain for not
inspecting the shield. The
Dunnock
hadn’t had a working heat shield in years. “So we’re not docking in orbit?”

“Can’t risk it. You think you can handle that, Roan?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good to hear.”
 
Kel
clicked off. Through the front windows, Roan watched the alien world grow ever
closer. For a moment, he blanked on what he should do next. But a blinking red
light and a buzz answered for him. Someone from the planet was trying to get a
hold of the
Colobus
. With a tap of
the red button Roan opened his own channel.

“
Colobus
here.”

There was a flurry of words and nonsensical noises from the
other end. It took Roan a moment to realize that what he was hearing was
Bauxen, a language he’d not come in contact with in years. Coupled with the
static, it sounded like someone clearing their throat. The person on the other
end let off a sustained growl right before he finished, and Roan had heard
enough Bauxen to know that this indicated a question. Someone apparently wasn’t
sure of the make and intent of their vessel.

“Uh, Bauxa Control, this is the
Colobus
. Our Earth designation is C1-C4A, as your records may
indicate. We only speak English on board this ship.”
 
Hadn’t they got the memo that English
was now the official language of interstellar commerce?

“English?” replied the voice on the other end, in a heavy
accent. There was some shuffling on the other end and the line went dead. Bauxa
began to fill up the windows and Roan hoped they replied within a reasonable
time frame. He really needed some instructions before landing on an unfamiliar
planet.

The hailing sign flickered once more and Roan again opened
the channel.

“
Colobus
here.”

“Sorry about that mix-up, mate,” came the reply, from what
was clear a Bauxen who had learned to speak English from a Brit. What was with
them and aliens? “We got you confused with one of our trawlers there for a
second. Yes,
Colobus
, registry
C1-C4A, you are cleared for landing at the Port of Siy.”
 
That was the planetary mecca for
commerce. Good to get lost in. “Do you need assistance finding the port?”

“Yeah, it’s been a while. Could you upload a map?”

“Certainly, mate. Enjoy your stay on Bauxa. You have Landing
Hangar…Eleventeen four.”

“Eleventeen four? You mean one one four?”

A pause at the other end. “One one four, correct. Sorry
mate! Cheers.”

“Cheers,” Roan sighed, and switched off the com. In seconds,
a detailed map uploaded to the
Colobus
’
navigational computer, which automatically programmed the route into the ship’s
memory banks. Now the
Colobus
would
give itself instructions on coming to a landing in Hangar one one four. And
while Roan really should have stayed here to monitor their descent, he had
other plans.

He was left with the distinct impression that Kel wanted him
isolated in the cockpit when they landed. What conceivable reason was there for
this? Did she think his mind fell down a black hole? Did she think he was going
to stop any ground-hugging crewman from leaving so they’d have enough people to
get to Aaron’s mystery planet? Roan settled on the “snapped” hypothesis. That
would explain her wariness around him, her behavior toward the prisoner, her
suspicious attitude.