Rivers of Orion Read online

  “No way,” countered Reggie. “Not in a million years, and not for a million credits.” Shaking his head with growing urgency, he said, “We’re transport, not exploration. You want that thing so bad, you go get it!”

  Lomomu turned to face the tree. “I have to side with the captain on this.”

  “How about for a billion credits?” asked Ellylle.

  Reggie sputtered. “You don’t… You don’t have a billion credits!”

  “You’re right,” she said. “I have quite a bit more than that.”

  “Let’s say you do, but it’s still half up front,” said Reggie. “You know the rules. So… Since you whacked the rest of your team, either you go and get that container, or we’re turning back.”

  Ellylle retrieved her datapad. “There’s no service this far out, but I’ll lock five hundred million for immediate transfer as soon as we get back to the outer rim.”

  Reggie narrowed his eyes. “Appreciate your assurances, but you’re still asking me to take your word for it.”

  Ellylle creaked as she worked her upper trunk and the datapad. “Look, it’s done! Okay?” She showed him a certified transfer certificate. “As soon as we’re back in range of the t-net, the money’s yours.” She studied his micro-expressions. “It’s three months to the closest nightmare gate. You’d really rather take the return trip, then wait another three months to get back here?”

  She handed him the datapad. Lomomu and Zella joined him. They pored over the legalese. At length, he passed it back to her. “Well?” she demanded.

  “Looks legit.”

  Lomomu whistled. “That it does.” He exchanged a giddy look with his captain.

  Hoarsely, Zella whispered, “Ye’re naw thenkin this—”

  Reggie interjected, “I’ll do it!”

  “We’ll do it,” Lomomu added. As an aside to Zella, he muttered, “Which means you’re outvoted.”

  Ellylle smiled. “Wonderful.” She regarded Zella as the other two climbed into their vac suits. “I can’t imagine you’d let me out of your sight, so I suppose you and I will just… keep the engine running? Isn’t that the phrase?”

  Zella only seethed in response. She stomped to the copilot’s station and plopped down.

  ◆◆◆

  The outer airlock hissed open. Reggie and Lomomu took stock of the passage: a grimy white plastic accordion with a grated footpath. At the far end, a circular door awaited them, so utterly dark it devoured all light that touched it. Reggie asked, “How are we supposed to open this thing?” His voice sounded tinny.

  “It’s on the map, lower right corner. When you get close, a code pad is going to appear. Just enter the characters exactly as they’re listed.”

  He confirmed, “Roger that.”

  They switched on their mag boots and clomped as they crossed the grated corridor. Upon reaching the alien door, a portion of it shimmered, revealing a recessed screen. Circular in shape, hundreds of glowing glyphs surrounded the perimeter, each of them unique. It took some time, but between them and the map, they successfully entered the access sequence.

  Reggie’s throat suddenly felt very dry, his hands clammy in their gloves.

  Something boomed from deep within, reverberating through the door. Ponderously, it slid away, rolling from view into its bulkhead recess. A similar door awaited them from across a vast compartment.

  Lomomu glanced at Reggie. With a shrug, he asked, “Do we just go inside?”

  After a beat, Ellylle curtly replied, “Coms won’t work once the door is closed, so you’d better grow some bigger balls if you want the other half of that billion.”

  Reggie pursed his lips and nodded. “That’s real classy. Bigger balls. Roger that.”

  Halfway across the compartment, the outer door rolled back into place. Gusts of air buffeted them from the overhead vents, and soon the far door opened to reveal darkened passageways. They tapped on their helmet lamps and stepped into the lightless labyrinth.

  Black glass plates reflected their lamplight back at them – glimpses of soaring, blade-sharp arches overhead and desiccated organic masses below their feet. Reggie shivered. What lived here? He thought, and he looked at Lomomu.

  The sudasau mouthed something. Reggie tapped the side of his helmet, and Lomomu mouthed, “Oh, right. No coms.”

  Reggie nodded. His heart raced.

  They followed the map.

  In time, they reached an intersection of wide passageways. A stunted pillar of smooth black steel stood at its heart, surrounded by a dozen hunched, slender figures. According to the map, the object they sought was supposed to be right here.

  Breathing ever more raggedly, Reggie approached the closest figure. He took in its polished measure. A faceless statue, he thought, and he reached out to prod it so very softly.

  He jumped and yelped as something touched his shoulder. Spinning around, he shined his lights directly into Lomomu’s eyes, causing the sudasau to squint and wave his captain away. With a stern expression, Lomomu rigidly pointed at the top of the column.

  Reggie followed the implied vector to its target. Sunken within a recess, he spied the curve of an orb, about the size of a basketball. Breathing a heavy sigh, he grinned, nodded, and cautiously crossed through the ring of glossy statues. Steeling himself, Reggie climbed onto the lip of the pillar.

  Lomomu stepped close.

  Reggie reached carefully into the column’s depths and took hold of the orb’s base. That’s strange, he noted. It’s just floating here. Carefully, he lifted it free. Despite its apparent mass, it felt nearly weightless. Gingerly, he passed it down to Lomomu, who looked equally as surprised at its feathery weight. Reggie lowered himself to the deck, taking great care not to bump any of the statues.

  Softly, the sphere began to glow.

  Lomomu’s breath stilled, and he looked up at his captain. Green flashed from the orb, fanning outward in all directions. Light traced the edges of the passageways, vanishing around corners and arches, and they froze. For what felt like an eternity, they heard nothing but their own breath in their ears.

  At last, Reggie nodded, wearing a hopeful smile. Lomomu’s shoulders sagged as he laughed in relief. With some spring in their step, they turned away from the pillar, headed back to the airlock.

  One by one, the slender figures stood.

  Chapter 3

  Worth the Price

  Reggie gripped the orb, pumping his legs as fast as they could go. He knew Lomomu could easily outpace him, but instead the sudasau chose to run at Reggie’s side. Stealing a backward glance, his heart leapt into his throat. The airlock beckoned directly ahead at the end of the passageway, but the polished figures had almost overtaken them.

  With tears in his eyes, Reggie shoved the orb at his friend, but Lomomu shook his head. In one fluid motion, he went from running with Reggie to carrying him in a fireman’s hold. Once inside the airlock compartment, Lomomu elbowed the activation panel, waking the machinery.

  He set down his captain, and they watched through the closing door as the figures drew nigh. A black blade snaked toward them. Its tip pressed against Reggie’s helmet. Caught in the sealed door, both the blade and the severed forearm that gripped it tumbled to his feet. Lomomu smashed the panel and gutted the electronics inside.

  Reggie dashed across the deck and pushed the other door’s activation plate. Overhead vents pulled in the air and left their ears ringing in the sudden silence. Slowly, the exterior door slid toward them and began gradually rolling into its recess. Mentally, he counted the seconds as it moved. “Zella, come in! Come in, come in!”

  “Aye Cap’n,” she answered. “A’m haur.”

  “I need you to do something.” His breathing ragged, he added, “And we have no time for questions.”

  Aboard Big Huey, still in the copilot’s seat, she glanced toward Ellylle who only shrugged in response. “Aye, tell me whit ye need.”

  “On my mark count five, retract the anchor struts, pull the boarding tube, and se
t the ship to come about left by ninety degrees.” Behind them, the locking seal glowed softly red. “It should take her about a minute to get there. Even though the tube’s still retracting, disable safety overrides and you point those thrusters directly into their airlock. Don’t worry; we’ll be aboard by then. Count five, then full speed ahead for one full second, you get me? Over.”

  She scrambled into the pilot’s seat. “Aye, Cap’n.” She repeated back his instruction and added, “When we’re in place, roast ‘em.”

  “That’s my girl.” He drew a deep breath. “See you in a minute.”

  Inside the airlock compartment, sparks tumbled to the deck. Reggie cast a grim glance Lomomu’s way. “Fast as they’re cutting through that door, it’ll only be a minute before they breach. You ready?”

  “Are you sure we have that much time?”

  “I ever been wrong about that?”

  Lomomu closed his eyes a moment and shook his head. “All right, I’m ready.”

  “Good.” He glanced at the slowly growing opening, steeled himself and nodded. “‘Cause it’s time.” Reggie squeezed past the door into the boarding tube.

  As Lomomu pulled himself along, his mag boot stuck to the door’s grip. Slowly, it began to drag him back in. With a mighty twist, he felt something crack, but he yanked his foot free and hurried through. He swung his legs around and set foot on the path, nodding toward his captain.

  Reggie shouted, “Zella, now!”

  Lomomu tried to move, but something held him firmly in place. Glancing down, a red error icon flashed on his damaged boot. Magnetically locked to the grating, it wouldn’t budge. Frantically, he jammed the power button, but his footwear didn’t respond.

  Unseen by Big Huey’s crew, where the joining frame met the alien hull, black steel suddenly flowed over it, creeping slowly along the outer walls of the tube. The passage groaned and popped as it began to retract, but the seal held fast against the darkened ship. The passageway’s winches sputtered as they pulled the shuttle toward the dark metropolis, though only for a moment before the lower winch burned out.

  Reggie reached the airlock in time to see a swarm of brightly outlined bubbles. Each one encased a mote of burning fuel that drifted from the boarding tube’s lower engine housing. “Ah, shit,” he yelped, dancing, bobbing, and weaving to avoid contact. A dozen globes touched the plastic walls, flaring as they gathered rings of molten plastic before floating out into the void.

  Lomomu watched their advance. “Captain!”

  A second too late, Reggie shouted, “Zella, stop the ship!”

  Big Huey had already begun to turn.

  “Computer’s swingin her about, Cap’n, and I cannae fly this thing manually!”

  “Then do not ignite main thrusters until I give the word, you get me?”

  “Aye, Cap’n.”

  “Lomomu, hold on to something!” Reggie pulled the airlock’s entry ring, and the door swung open. He set down Ellylle’s sphere, switched off his boots, and used his arms to launch toward his friend.

  Lomomu grabbed for the joining frame and watched as his captain sped toward him.

  Just then, the path buckled and shattered. Reggie vanished into the wreckage, and Lomomu screamed as the broken path flung him backward. Globes of fuel perforated the wall and stuck to the grating, where they continued to burn.

  Bits and pieces of sheared steel floated away, bumping silently against the rent remains of the plastic walls. Upside down now, Lomomu felt dizzy as he took in the blur of stars. His breathing came in increasingly ragged gasps, and his whole body ached. His eyes throbbed, and his ribs burned. Looking at his side, he noticed a wide slash. Air rushed out, along with tiny globules of his blood. Gripping both sides of the breach, he clenched tight enough for the air pressure to normalize.

  Directly before him, he stared at the underside of Big Huey’s main thrusters as they slowly came about. “By the seven suns,” he muttered, and he closed his eyes.

  Clinging to the other half of the passage, Reggie climbed hand over hand along the wreckage. When he reached the airlock, he found it closed. From inside the compartment, Ellylle peered back at him. “Ellylle, open up! I can save him, but I need a tether!”

  Ellylle vanished back into the shuttle.

  “Ellylle? Zella? Zella, do you copy?”

  No one responded.

  He checked the transmitter housing on his helmet. It was badly dented. Desperately, he banged on the airlock door, but no one came. “Now that you got what you wanted, I guess you don’t need us anymore,” he growled. His voice felt empty, and it sent a chill up his spine. Gritting his teeth, he faced Lomomu from across the void as the shuttle completed its move.

  Within the alien compartment, the shower of sparks faded.

  Using all his might, Reggie jumped, crossing the distance to his friend. He grasped a curl of pathway grating and swung around hard. After bouncing against the metropolis, he rebounded back toward the wreckage, but managed to catch himself in time to avoid injury.

  Lomomu smiled sadly to see him settle in at his side. Reggie gripped the back of the sudasau’s helmet and pressed its face against his own. Glassy tears floated from his eyes.

  Big Huey’s thrusters began to glow.

  Reggie jumped as something struck his shoulder. When it tapped him insistently, he turned around to look. Tethered to the shuttle’s airlock, anchored to the wreckage by a dozen vines, Ellylle regarded them impatiently with an outstretched branch.

  Grinning, practically laughing, Reggie nodded and hooted, “Thank God for you!”

  Lomomu, however, grimly shook his head and pointed at his boot. It held fast to what remained of the path. She swayed and creaked, her expression flat. With a precise thrust of her branch, she cracked the boot’s outer casing near the heel and gutted its power cell. The error light faded, and Lomomu grinned.

  From the other side of the airlock, Zella used the upper winch to reel them in.

  As they crossed the void, gloss black figures breached the compartment. Air surged from inside, pelting the shuttle with debris. Seemingly unaffected by the gale force winds rushing past them, they gathered in a ring and waited.

  The instant Big Huey’s crew boarded, Zella closed the outer door. As the compartment pressurized, Zella sprang for the cockpit, where she executed a full burn. “See ye in hell,” she spat.

  Bathed in white-hot flame, the figures merely stood as silhouettes, anchored in place. Silently, they watched Big Huey pull away. As she zipped out along the tunnel, they turned around to face one another. The exterior door rolled back into place.

  ◆◆◆

  Big Huey closed on the starship Old Siberian. She wore a coat of weathered white paint. At her fore, a massive spherical capsule joined a lengthy, narrow hull made of beams and struts that sandwiched a thriving hydroponics deck. The hull joined an enormous thruster array.

  Slowly, the shuttle turned fully around as it completed its approach. Directional thrusters fired with greater force as the ship settled in, and docking clamps rose to engage. Just before the hangar doors sealed shut, the crew caught a glimpse of the Milky Way’s northern arm.

  Lomomu stopped by sick bay on the berth deck to stitch and bandage his wound.

  Not long after, they gathered within the adjacent lounge. Nodding toward the orb, Lomomu asked, “What is that thing?”

  “I told you,” said Ellylle. “It’s a container.”

  “Why was it worth risking our lives?” asked Reggie.

  Her flowers bloomed slowly, taking on pastel blue tones that shifted and faded to orange. “I’d have risked my own life for what’s inside.”

  “If ye tell me it’s a decoder ring, I’m pushin ye out the airlock,” Zella grumped.

  Ellylle laughed musically. “No, it’s not a decoder ring.” From her trunk, vines crept forth to surround the globe, where they turned dozens of latitudinal bands simultaneously until something clicked. Carefully, she lifted away the top half to reveal a large, bla
ck gem cradled within. Each of its facets portrayed a dark continent of verdant plant life, and it radiated blinding light that managed somehow not to hurt the onlookers.

  “What’s goin’ on?” Lomomu squinted as he gazed.

  “It’s okay to look,” said Ellylle. “The longer you do, the more you’ll see.”

  “What is it?” whispered Reggie.

  “Her name is Nyx, and she’s a world seed,” said Ellylle. “We’re taking her to Earth.”

  “Why Earth?” asked Lomomu.

  “Nyx will take Gaea’s place,” said Ellylle.

  “Gaea,” said Reggie. “From ancient mythology? Are you serious?”

  “I’m usually serious,” said Ellylle. “Gaea is the name for Earth’s world seed. Anyway, once she’s settled in, Nyx will remake the planet in her image.”

  Reggie chuckled at first but found no humor in Ellylle’s gaze. “Oh! Uh, how long will that take? Do you think?”

  “Laugh if you want. I know it’s an extraordinary claim, from your very limited point of view,” said Ellylle.

  “Really, I’d like to know,” said Reggie.

  Ellylle considered for a moment. “That’s up to her, I suppose. It could take days, or it could take centuries.”

  Reggie looked concerned. “What will that do to the people of Earth?”

  “It will have no effect on the living,” said Ellylle. “The endless skylines and machinery, however, will be… repurposed.”

  “Sorry, but I don’t believe in any of that,” said Reggie. “World souls and goddesses? Come on!”

  Ellylle laughed and shrugged. “You don’t need to, but if I’m right—and I usually am right—the loss of Earth as they know her will bring the United Planets to its knees.”

  “Why the hell would you want to do that?” asked Lomomu.

  Ellylle scowled. “Have you seen what they’ve done to the galaxy?”

  Lomomu nodded. “Sure, but I don’t think…”