“Good night,” her mother said. Vaga watched her back away from her bedrack hanging from the prefab wall. Dressed in a simple gray, raddon dress with her long, brown hair pulled back in a tail, her mother’s face had a warmth and softness that made her feel safe and loved. Standing in the doorway, her father held his wide field hat in his hands. His boots dirty, he appeared worn out, yet a smile cut through his face when he looked at her.
“Tomorrow,” he said. “You can help me plant yecaron.”
“And you can help me harvest the woodberries,” her mother said. “For pie.”
Vaga smiled and turned over in her bedrack. More like a shelf than bed, it hung from the wall by chain links. Opposite the door, a large circular window of thick laminate showed the full yellowed moon hovering over the countryside. She hadn’t made up her mind yet if she liked this place yet. Everything seemed to be hard. They grew their own food, bartered with other colonists for tools, and when a new prefab went up, the entire village showed up to lend a hand – and everyone prepared a massive feast for the newcomers.
Deep inside her, she missed the ionbikes, wingpods and channel cars of the big cities, but most of all she missed the lights. Back on Hesmucet, the cities came alive each night – every building and street lit up like the heavens. People of every species mingled among the streets. And the shows they’d go to see. Amazing. When her father said they had to leave, she was heartbroken. It was home. But better alive on a backwater planet, then drained dry by the Nerge.
Vaga rolled over and hugged her blanket, a circle of moonlight showing on her wall. A loud thump sat her up in bed. A quick scan of the room showed nothing had changed. The circle of moonlight still spread against the wall. Climbing out of the bedrack, Vaga stepped into the center of her room, where a brisk breeze rustled in. Quickly she stepped to the window but stubbed her toe on something. When she looked down, she saw a great circle of laminate on the floor – the laminate from her prefab window!
“Sweetheart,” her mother called from the hall. “Is everything all right?”
Before Vaga could scream, she saw two massive arms reaching into the gaping hole that used to be her window. They snatched her up and as she flew backward through the hole, she screamed, “Help me!”
Falling, she hit her head on the ground and everything went fuzzy. She knew only a few things, something was dragging her off through the reedgrass and her father and mother were running after her – her father launching shot after shot toward her attacker with his plasma rifle. Then her eyes closed to blackness.
* * *
Would you take her in the back and get her cleaned up?! We have fifteen minutes before arrival and I don’t want to wait for some narcaleptic stowaway.
Morigin’s words rang distant to her ears – almost dream-like. A forceful grip came to her arms as she was hauled up from the floor, her body tingling and numb.
“Don’t worry,” Palo whispered in her ear. “Once we’re on Draedus, we’ll figure something out.”
Vaga shook the dream from her head and looked at him. “Maybe once he has what he’s looking for, he’ll let us go.”
Palo helped her to the washroom and over to the basin. “Maybe.”
Vaga braced her arms on the basin and wretched into it. The flashbacks were getting easier – she could already feel her stomach settling down. Rising from the cold steel basin, she threw her head back and wiped her mouth. “What do you mean maybe?”
“All those things I mentioned,” he told her. “I made it up. Those gifts are just cheap trinkets my father found in backwater bodegas. They’re worthless.”
“And what happens when he finds that part out?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why did you lie to him?”
Palo looked away from Vaga and said, “I couldn’t let him do that to you.”
The Jade Tendril shuddered and shook. They were entering the atmosphere of Draedus. Palo and Vaga staggered back to the cabin and strapped in. Through the viewport, they watched Draedus loom closer and closer. After a few moments of turbulance, the Tendril flattened its trajectory over the Rebotco Sea. Before them stretched a massive green expanse of water and just beyond that a continent.
As the ship flew over land, Vaga thought back to her conversation with Palo – he acted in her interest. He had been looking at her strangly quite a bit and she couldn’t figure out why. She turned to watch him. He stared at the viewport – they were approaching a large lake now. Deep in her stomach, Vaga felt a flutter of warmth run through her. It was different than when a memory was coming back. She didn’t feel uneasy like she was about to wretch. It comforted her. It felt good.
“There it is!” exclaimed Palo.
Morigin turned around and said, “I know. I’ve been here before.”
The Tendril passed over an expansive lake home on the farthest shore. A glorified three-level prefab, with faux fawnwood siding, the home stuck out amidst the pinet trees and carab-brush. Banking hard to the left, the Tendril passed over a clearing in the forest and fired retroes to buffet the landing.
Morigin didn’t wait for the landing to unstrap and stand up. “Let’s go.” He walked into the corridor and Palo and Vaga followed. They entered the corridor and saw the cases attached to the walls – each one held a different weapon. Morigin pressed his palm against a locked stashaway. The door clicked and opened to show a cache of plasma blasters, rifles and repeaters. Morigin reached up to the case above the entrance to the cabin and detached his cutlass, then he reached across the corridor and grabbed the Colt 45.
“What do we need all of this for?” asked Palo.
Morigin turned to him and said, “That huntsman that was after you? He found you once, and I don’t want to take the chance that he’ll find you again.” Morigin reached into the stashaway and handed Palo a repeater.
“Do you need a weapon?” Morigin asked Vaga.
Her mind seemed disconnected for a moment. With all the weapons in front of her, an odd light blinked in the back of her brain. It throbbed and hummed and told her body to be warm, hot and ready. She felt strangely detached.
“Conduit?!” Morigin asked louder. “You need a weapon or can you still do all that hand-to-hand stuff your kind is known for?”
Vaga shook her head and took the rifle into her hands. She couldn’t place those feelings earlier. Trance-like, she watched Palo and Morigin gear up. Palo winked at her. Surely he felt better now that Morigin had given them weapons. Breathing deeply, she followed them out of the ship and down the ramp.
The air on Draedus slid warm and wet down her throat – almost tropical. A warm breeze wafted off the lake. Vaga adjusted her grip on the rifle and waited. Palo would probably give her a signal and they would both turn on the captain, make a slippery escape. But escape in what? They couldn’t pilot the Jade Tendril without the captain. Perhaps Palo had an old ionbike stashed in the garage or something.
Once out of the ship, Morigin swiped his ear and pressed the corner of his eye – glowing marks lit up underneath his ear and a green sheen filled his eyes. “Jade, cover up and watch our backside.” Vaga watched in amazement as the dingy panels of the Jade Tendril shimmered slightly then disappeared. Her mouth agape, she felt fingers dig into her shoulder to turn her around.
Morigin glared at her and said, “I know. Pretty cool. Let’s go.” He moved Palo in front of him and said, “Let’s go look at these gifts.”
In a single file line, they walked through the sparse pinet trees until the large lake home loomed in front of them. On the corner eve of the house a keymon sat, its burgundy dorsal feathers ruffled. Vaga watched its long, prehensile, feathered tail swash against the faunwood siding. Its deep blue eyes followed her and the others to the side door. It cuckled at them – almost like it welcomed them.
“I’m sure he never changed the locks,” Palo said to Morigin as they stopped at the door.
Morigin cut in front of him and reached to an archaic keypad. After punching in a few codes, the door lurched open and Morigin said, “No. He never did.” He grabbed Palo’s arm and shoved him through.
For a brief moment Vaga entertained the idea of abandoning Palo and whatever plan he had. All she had to do was run – run fast and run far. Scenarios rambled through her mind, isolated wingpodders stopping to pick her up on the pathways, a skiff bus of children coming home from school – surely she’d run into someone, someone willing to help a lost soul. A sweat bead grew above her left eyebrow. Behind her the keymon cuckled, almost a laugh. She held the rifle up and looked closer – it seemed so foreign to her. Deep scrapes rusted into the black metal of the rifle – it had seen some time.
Then a hand from the blackness inside grabbed her and yanked her in. “If we get ambushed, we stand a better chance together, then separated,” the gruff voice of Morigin said in the darkness. Jostled and tugged through a dark garage, Vaga erupted into a lighted hall with Morigin in front of her.
A few steps later they walked into a large living area with a massive fireplace in the center. A crystal table by some lounge chairs supported numerous strange artifacts sitting on small silver stands. Art pieces hung from the walls – impressions, typography, landscapes. Along the hall leading to the sleeping quarters a neat row of framed parchments displayed strange glyphs or symbols on them. Morigin focused on those. He stood in front of each one and blinked – there was a brief flash and then he’d move on to the next one and do the same.
“Don’t just stand there,” he told her. “We don’t have much time. Help Palo find those gifts, then we’re out of here.” He flashed on another framed glyph.
Shaking her head, Vaga passed Morigin in the hall and walked to Palo’s bedroom. The layout was just as she remembered from the encrypted videos she hacked aboard the Jade Tendril. Standing in the doorway, she watched Palo rummage through all his old things. He seemed to have lost focus on his original plan. Stepping closer to him to be sure Morigin couldn’t hear, she said, “So how do we get out of this?”
Holding a glass cube in his hand, Palo looked at the long dead kello fish encased in the laminate and said, “Right. The neighbors down the shore have a lake cruiser we can borrow.” Palo set aside the laminate cube and opened the drawers to his dresser – riddled among the neatly folded clothes were numerous gift bags and packages, obviously opened and discarded.
“That’s it?” Vaga asked.
Palo opened a long, thin box filled with pale tissue paper. Dipping his fingers in, he pulled out a fine, plain silken glove. Incredibly light and almost sheer, it had a powerful grace to it, almost a shimmer. Palo placed the glove back amidst the tissues, closed the box and through it next to the laminate cube. “That’s all I have. It isn’t much, but it’s all we got.”
He sorted through the other bags and boxes – a minature statuette of a hinyxbear, a paper effigy of the Dunare satellite, a large dried out poppa podseed stamped with the Tropico national seal, an ornate vial filled with colored sands, an acurabattery and other nonsensical items.
“Instead of sitting there pouting,” he told her while tossing an old cloth pack her way. “Stuff this bag full of this stuff.”
“Why?” she asked. “This stuff is worthless.”
“It’s all I have now. We should be able to sell some of it if we can make it to Daerduri.”
Vaga opened the pack and started stuffing it with the gifts. “Where is that?”
“The other side of the lake,” Palo said. “We should be able to find a transport to anywhere we want.”
Vaga just tightened down the full pack, when she heard Morigin’s overjoyed voice exclaim, “Thank the suns and moons!”
Palo and Vaga ran out of the bedroom and followed Morigin’s voice to Telo’s lab. Once there, Vaga saw Morigin standing in front of a great whitesteel vault. Rubbing his hands over the smooth plates of vault armor, Morigin said, “I thought for certain they had beaten us here.”
“What are you talking about?” Vaga asked.
Morigin turned to face her and he had a gleeful look about him, almost as if he was experiencing a spiritual epiphany. “The R’Ihande . It’s here. Locked up in this vault, safe from anyone wishing to steal it. That was the delivery Telo sent me on when he was killed. I expected to get here to find it blown open and robbed – Telo’s death would have been for nothing.”
Vaga watched Palo’s face. Deep in thought, she felt him slipping away from whatever plan he concocted in his head. Just the mention of his estranged father’s name diverted him. New calculations ran through his head – she could see them contorting his forehead and eyes. And Morigin’s face. In her short time with him, she had never seen him so elated and happy – joyful. His grin stretched from ear-to-ear. An odd, almost unnoticeable ring split through the silence. She couldn’t figure out if the others could hear it, or if it was something in her mind, some small piece of hope that sparked and then died. Her future was changing before her eyes.
“Well,” said Morigin. “Let’s not stand around.” He swung around to the coded lock to the vault – a circular opening. Morigin thrust his left arm in the opening and the lock lit up in lights and let out a fleshy sounding thunk. Morigin cringed for a moment, then the lock whirred and he removed his arm. Before them pressure seals fired and the great vault door spiraled open, revealing a well lit room that only had one thing in it – an archaic wooden pedestal and atop it, sealed in a cube of clear plasteel hung suspended a gleaming gold and jewel encrusted gauntlet.
Vaga and Palo looked at it with amazement. Their steps seemed slower – time spun almost to a stop as they gazed upon the R’Ihande.
Filled with almost pure rapture Morigin grinned wide and bright. His fingers traced the smooth sides of the plasteel as he said, “One of six sacred pieces, the R’Ihande, according to legend, means ‘vacuum’ or ‘blackness,’ reportedly giving its wielder the power of some great dark energy. I’ve only seen partial stories – descriptions really. No one knows exactly what it does and we are the only three living souls in this galaxy to have seen it.”
“Amazing,” Vaga said. She too found herself touching a prodding her fingertip to the encased artifact. Something drew her to it. Doubt lingered in her head. It couldn’t be true. Morigin was a raving lunatic. He couldn’t be right. Could he? About this? But a warm feeling ran through her and made her feel like she was on the right side of something big.
A full loop around the gauntlet, Vaga noticed Palo just standing there staring – deep in thought. Curdling emotions had to be swirling in his head. She remembered the video feed – the bitterness Palo held for his father. The regret his father forged by putting his work over his family. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Palo reject even this stark symbol of his father’s work – push it off the pedestal and kick it through the wall. Or he might even collapse right in front of the artifact and weep.
“He was right,” Palo said, barely beneath his breath. “This whole time he wasn’t chasing down bedtime stories. He really was on to something. And I never believed him.”
Vaga didn’t know what to do. She felt badly for him and wanted to help but she didn’t know what to do or say. She made fists with her hands instead and cocked her head every few seconds to look at him.
“No you didn’t,” Morigin told him. He pulled the plasteel case off the pedestal and tucked it under his arm. Then in a move that surprised Vaga, Morigin stepped over to Palo and clapped his hand a few times on his shoulder and said, “It’s in the past son. We’ve all made stupid choices.” Then Morigin walked out of the vault room.
“I didn’t expect that,” said Palo.
Vaga was still staring at the hallway, trying to recalculate her feelings about Morigin. He perhaps had a human side. “Do you think he still wants to hook me up to an experience chamber?”
Palo adjusted the strap on the pack he held over his shoulder and said, “I think what we found has delayed his decision on that. But I’m not about to believe he’s a changed man.”
“What should we do?” she asked. “He’s left us alone.”
Palo thought about it for a moment and said, “I’m really sorry, but I need to go with him. What we’ve found here…it – well it changes the course of things for me. all my life I’ve hated my father for this. Now that I know it is true – that it is a real thing capable of changing things in this galaxy, I can’t abandon it. I feel compelled to finish what my father started – whatever he was doing.”
“What about me?” Vaga asked. Palo looked sheepishly at her and she felt a warmness again. Something in the way he looked at her – his eyes bright, a slight curl in his smile – made her feel good. She couldn’t figure out what it was, but it made her smile too.
“You can choose to run away right now if you want,” Palo said, his voice a bit disapproving. “I’d cover for you. Stall as long as I can to give you a head start. Or, you could come with us. I give you my word, I’ll do whatever I can to protect you, if you need it? I’ve heard stories about conduits.”
Vaga smiled. She knew from how Palo said it, that he wanted her to come with him and she measured that want against all the bad possible outcomes. “I’ll come. But if we get within one click of that technology, I’ll bring that ship down on a star. I’m not going through that again.”
“Fair enough,” Palo said.
Through the hallway and subdued by the darkness of the garage, Palo and Vaga heard voices outside. Muffled at first and hard to hear, they walked quickly to the side door, before the whole house shook and they were knocked to the floor. Ears ringing, Palo and Vaga quickly got up and ran outside. Another explosion and they fell to the ground. On her back, Vaga saw a ship circling the house. Scorched by what she could only assume was 500 years of plasma fire, the ship vollied blast after blast of plasma at the house. She rolled over and shrugged Palo awake. Struggling to get up, they turned and saw Morigin – lying face down in the plivet grass, smoke from flesh plasma wavering over his body.
“You are making this too easy for me,” a voice said above them.
