Ephemeral: Chapter 3
Darian cursed. Tristan watched, agape. Aliyah put her hand over her mouth.
“What do we do?!” Clara asked, her green eyes wide. “Raven, what do we do?!”
Everyone turned to the tall, stoic figure staring out the shuttle window. “We can't fight,” Raven said quietly. “We're outnumbered.”
“And have zero weapons!” Darian cursed again. “Can't the drioids shoot lasers or generate some kind of a protective shield?”
Tristan wiped his glasses on his navy blue sleeve. “What if we stall?” He replaced his glasses. “You heard the intercom: in one hour this shuttle's going to blast back home! We could lock the door, skip the internship, and stay alive instead.”
“Sounds good to me!” Darian said. “Could you program the ship to take off now?”
“I don't think that's a good idea.” Raven said, still facing the window. “Vitae Transports is a very efficient company. I bet they design their shuttles to support passengers only one way. Why waste energy heating an empty cabin on the return trip?”
Clara thought of the sub-zero temperatures of outer space and shivered. “And what about oxygen?” she asked. “If the returning shuttle doesn't turn on its heat to save energy, it might not turn on its air, either. We'd all pass before leaving the atmosphere.”
Darian kicked a nearby server bot. “Wonderful! We can get zapped or suffocate. Any takers?”
“What if we hide?” Aliyah asked, anxiously searching the room for an inconspicuous refuge.
“I'm pretty sure they already know we're here ...” Tristan said. “This ship's too small for any hidden compartments.”
“Isn't there anything else we can do?” Clara asked, wringing her hands.
Raven took a deep breath and sighed. “Our best strategy is to surrender.”
“Surrender!?” Darian shouted. “Are you out of your mind?! This is no time for political gambling. Those soldiers out there mean business!”
“Which is why we need to think and not panic!” Raven turned from the window, brown eyes flashing. “Here are the facts from where I stand; there's five of us here, and an army out there. They know this planet; we don't. They have all the weapons; we don't. If we try to resist, they'll only use force against us. That's the reality. Escape is irrational. Surrender is our only hope.”
The other interns stood motionless, allowing the truth of Raven's assessment to sink in.
“But if we just walk out there with our hands over our heads, we'll be totally defenseless,” Darian said sullenly.
“We're defenseless anyway!” Raven snapped, her patience wearing thin.
At that moment, a loud voice called from outside: “Attention those on board! You have entered Silexian territory. We are armed and have you surrounded. Come out of your spacecraft slowly with your hands in the air, or we will board your spacecraft.”
“Oh, no!” Aliyah whimpered.
Darian cursed again.
Raven took a deep breath and walked woodenly to the shuttle door. “Alright, now. Dignity,” she said, mostly to herself. “We are Vitae Conglomerate University grad students. We can sort out this misunderstanding.” She hit the red unlock button and opened the shuttle door.
Golden light flooded the cabin. Raven raised a hand to shield her eyes as she descended the shuttle steps to the grass below. Clara mechanically put one foot in front of the other and squinted in the brightness as a honeysuckle wind wafted against her pale cheek. Had she not been so terrified, she would have noted how alive the air felt and marveled at the pervasive birdsong. But all she could think about were the soldiers staring at her through unreadable helmets with darkened visors. Their metal staffs glinted in the gold light and pulsed with blue energy.
As Clara struggled to keep her meal down and her hands up, her spacesuit grew increasingly uncomfortable. Sweat trickled down her left temple as questions hurtled through her mind like balls in a pinball machine: Where did all these soldiers come from? Where are the original colonists? And what's going to happen to us?
Clara averted her eyes from the flickers of blue electricity and focused on her white boots until she reached solid ground. Then she stood next to Raven. I should have stayed home with Sydney, she thought, hands still above her head.
One by one, the other interns made their way down the shuttle steps and assembled in a line to face the commanding officer. His forearms bulged through his form-fitting slate-gray uniform as he aimed his own staff at their faces. “Who are you, and where do you come from?” he demanded, his aim never flinching.
The dumbfounded grad students looked at one another as if to ask which one wanted to get shot first. Even the wise-cracking Darian stood quiet and pale.
When no one answered immediately, a nearby soldier tapped the base of his staff on the ground, making the blue electric bolts spark more intensely. The staff's low-level hum rose in pitch similar to when the shuttle engines had warmed up prior to launch.
Clara's stomach tensed as if bracing for a punch. Her arms ached from holding their overhead position, and she found she could no longer swallow.
“Who are you, and where do you come from?” the commander repeated.
Raven cleared her throat and spoke deliberately. “I am number 6,456,415,026, graduate student of the Vitae Conglomerate University, Raven Ulric, age twenty-four. These are my fellow research interns. We don't mean any harm and don't want any trouble.”
“The Vitae Conglomerate University?” the commander asked, lowering his staff a millimeter. “Never heard of it. From what planet do you come?”
Again, the students exchanged astonished glances.
“We’re from Earth, sir,” Darian said, his voice cracking on the last word. “We’re on an academic internship to study Elpis 7 and write papers for our masters degrees. This is Elpis 7 ... isn't it?”
After failing to find any visible threat and seeing the terror in the interns' eyes, the commander concluded his pulsing weapon was perhaps unnecessary. He switched off his staff and held it upright by his side in a more relaxed pose. The other soldiers followed suit, the hum of electricity replaced by the hum of insects. Then he tapped a button on the side of his helmet which retracted the visor. He had a serious face with dark, close-cropped hair, high cheekbones, and deep brown eyes that studied rather than saw the world around him. “At ease,” he said to the foreigners.
Relief doused Clara's burning fear as she and the others lowered their arms down to their sides.
“In answer to your question,” the commander addressed Darian, “yes, this is the seventh planet orbiting Elpis. But we have not had dealings with Earth for …” he trailed off. “Are there only five of you? No more on their way?”
“No, sir,” Raven answered. “The Vitae Conglomerate University awards five interstellar internships per summer. After forty days, this ship will return to take us home.”
“Summer? Days?” The commander cocked his head. “I am unfamiliar with those terms. Do you mean you wish to stay for forty Elpis-risings-to-settings?”
Raven shifted her weight from one white boot to the other. “If by 'rising and setting' you mean when the sun – er, your star – crosses the horizon, then yes. That is our hope.”
The commander knit his brows together. “I do not understand the meaning of your visit, nor why it should take so long.”
“Well, sir,” Tristan faltered in the presence of so many armed guards, “we brought our own supplies and shelters so as not to be a burden to the settlement. We know you had no idea of our arrival and apologize for not sending word beforehand but …” he wiped his damp, freckled brow. “... the next wormhole back to Earth won't appear for another forty risings and settings. That's why we can't return to our home planet sooner.”
“As to the purpose of our visit,” Raven explained, “we wish to study various aspects of Elpis 7 life and share how this new colony has developed since its founding.”
The commander blinked. “New colony?” he said with a note of incredulity. “And with whom shall you share your findings?”
“Only the academic officials at the Vitae Conglomerate University,” Tristan answered.
“And what do they intend to do with such information?”
The interns stiffened at the commander's accusative tone.
Raven spoke calmly. “We hope they will award us with master's degrees so we can gain meaningful employment in our individual fields back on Earth. That is all.”
There was an uncomfortable silence as the commander's eyes darted from one visitor to the next, searching each face for any sign of treachery.
Clara felt her heart pumped in double time. Does he think we're spies or something?!
Raven cleared her throat. “Perhaps someone else may be more familiar with our mission in light of the interstellar charter's educational exchange clause. Might we speak with Captain Karnak, please?”
“His Eminence?” The commander's eyes widened at the mention of the name. “How do you know His Eminence?”
“We read about him in the internship brief,” Tristan said. His spectacles slid down his red-freckled nose; he was sweating profusely now.
“Did the colonists elect Captain Karnak to be His Eminence shortly after setting up base camp?” Raven asked.
The corner of the commander’s mouth twitched. “His Eminence heads the Silex tribe as Prime Counselor to the Grand Assembly. We will take you to him. He will decide what’s to be done with you.”
Something in the way the commander said, “done with you,” made Clara want to turn around and slink back onto the shuttle. But that was both impolitic and impossible; they'd zap her before she reached the first step.
The commander took a step from the ranks and spun his staff in front of him in a windmill fashion. As he twirled, the weapon telescoped back into itself like a spyglass till it measured mere inches across. Then the staff's wider end folded down so the commander could hold the whole contraption in the palm of his hand. This explained why Clara hadn't seen the electric staffs from the shuttle window. Now the entire regiment followed their commander's lead and tucked their folded staffs into hidden uniform pockets.
Clara stared as if she'd just witnessed a magic trick, but the commander took no notice. He swiped at a screen on a thin, black arm band wrapped around his forearm. Within seconds, a twenty-foot hovercraft sleek as a porpoise zoomed toward its owner and descended four feet from the ground just in front of him. Clara's eyes widened. Although people often used hovercraft as short-distance commuter vehicles back on Earth, she had never seen one that could accommodate more than two people. This Elpis 7 model looked significantly sturdier – even military-grade. The verdant grass fluttered and swished underneath the floating vessel's azure propulsion lights.
“You will ride with me,” ordered the commander.
“B-but sir! What about our luggage?” Aliyah raised her voice for the first time since exiting the shuttle.
“Don’t concern yourself with your belongings. We will deliver them to the city.”
City? Clara wondered. Isn't it premature to call base camp a city?
The commander pushed another button on his armband to lower the hovercraft steps. “Get in,” he said. “Elpis will be setting soon, and most of this planet is still untamed.”
Untamed?! Clara gulped. But she and the others obeyed without question.
As she waited her turn to board, Clara observed the hovercraft's smooth, tapered front and wide protective windshield. Then she hoisted herself up the steep steps and walked toward the back to sit on the padded seats lining its interior perimeter. From her place, she could clearly see the windshield and navigational screens in front of the driver's seat along with dozens of blinking buttons, metal levers, and steering wheel. The design was not unlike the motorboat she'd ridden at Raven's family lake house during her senior year of high school. Even Sydney had joined the group, though she'd spent most of her time under the beach umbrella with her nose in a book. Clara sighed. What she wouldn't give to return to those happy days back when Dr. Ulric was well and Raven was carefree. Her father had been the best heart-surgeon the Vitae Conglomerate Hospital had ever had. Raven had been fiercely proud of him, too, until …
CRASH!
Clara and the others jumped at the sound of something landing on the shuttle steps; one soldier had accidentally dropped a box while unloading the interns' cargo.
Clara exhaled and waited for her heart rate to return to normal.
Aliyah frowned as she sat next to Clara. “I sacrificed a lot for this internship. If those storm troopers break so much as one of my test tubes …” she threatened.
Raven caught Aliyah's eye and shook her head subtly; now was not the time to make waves. Here they were not the pilots but the passengers – perhaps even the prisoners.
Once the whole team had boarded the hovercraft, Raven leaned slightly forward and said quietly, “Don't worry. As head of the original mission to Elpis 7, Captain Karnak should be familiar with the educational exchange clause. He'll vouch for us.”
“I hope you're right,” Tristan said as he raked a hand through his carrot-colored hair. “Because I left my copy of the charter in the brief back on the shuttle.”
“I left my comfortable boots,” muttered Aliyah.
“And I left the booze,” Darian sighed.
“At least we're all together,” Clara said, groping for a glimmer of hope. “If they wanted to kill us, they would have done it by now. Right?”
Her silver lining frayed for lack of affirmation. Even Raven's attempt at a reassuring smile fell flat.
The interns sat up straight as the commander stepped onto the craft and faced the group. “Keep seated once we're in the air,” he ordered. “Otherwise, you'll upset the hovercraft's balance.” He replaced his gray helmet over his head, sat in the pilot's chair, and pulled a lever.
The windshield extended until it completely enclosed the craft. The interns ducked as it clicked in place behind the edge of their seats. Despite the shield's perfect transparency, Clara felt trapped. Like a specimen under glass ...
The hovercraft rose twenty feet off the ground, then gradually accelerated away from the shuttle. Clara turned around to face the shrinking spacecraft and saw guards off-loading cases of scientific equipment and shelter supplies onto three other hovercraft. Her disappointed hopes stung her eyes as she watched the black and white spaceship with all its Earthly associations disappear in the distance.
#
As the Elpis 7 sky deepened to indigo in the east, fear shrouded the minds of the unfortunate research interns. Their heavy blue spacesuits no longer stifled them now they were flying at seventy miles an hour in the air-conditioned hovercraft. They sat together mulling over individual regrets – some lamenting their choice to leave their own solar system, others brooding over dark speculations for the future.
Clara detected several fruity/floral scents on the rushing wind: mango, rose, lemon, and lily. They reminded her of a visit to a V.C. botanical garden with her mother. She had only been ten years old at the time, but the myriad of colors and fanciful scents came back to her vividly. She folded her cold hands on her lap and gazed at her teammates' faces. Darian leaned back in his seat with his eyes half-closed. Tristan rested his chin on his hand – a living replica of the Rodin statue now sitting in the V.C. Museum of Western Antiquities. Raven sat motionless watching the navigational screens like a hawk – a perfect contrast to Aliyah who couldn't seem to keep still. The genetics counselor crossed and uncrossed her legs and parted hair to the right, then to her left with equal dissatisfaction.
Clara interlocked her fingers. She entertained a faint hope that since she and the others presented no immanent danger to either the settlement's citizens or supplies, Captain Karnak might allow them to camp in a corner somewhere and wait the forty days for their shuttle to return. Surely there was no reason to execute the research team for merely landing on the planet. But Clara had taken enough history courses to know that one cannot always count upon the reasonableness of rulers.
No one in the hovercraft felt like talking, and the commander certainly did not volunteer information. Not once did he turn to ask them about their home planet or to verify they were seated and secure. Perhaps he figured the twenty-foot drop to the swiftly-passing ground was enough deterrent to any escape efforts – not to mention the bulletproof windshield and six other hovercraft flying behind his own vessel.
Clara also had not forgotten his cryptic comment back at the shuttle: Most of this planet is still untamed. Was that why their craft flew so high – to avoid man-eating predators? Clara scanned the land as well as she could. Had she not known any better, she would have thought herself back on Earth. The wide plains gradually gave way to gentle foothills. The foothills became steeper in the distance until they led to the forested triangular silhouettes of mountains. In the fading light, she could just make out their white peaks.
Clara shifted her position to get a better view and felt a sharp jab within her in boot. “Ow!”
“What is it?” Raven asked, taking her eyes off the navigational screens.
“Something's poking me!” Clara reached inside her footwear and drew out a blade of grass about three inches long and half an inch across. She scrutinized the offending plant, then gasped. “This grass isn't a single blade – it's 3D like a prism! And it's heavy!”
Tristan pushed his glasses up his nose. “Can I see it, Clara?”
She handed it over.
Tristan held the green object up to the rapidly-fading light, then tore it in half and inspected the inside. “Interesting. It reminds me of an aloe leaf. But the outside isn't waxy and the inside isn't filled with gel. It's solid – solid grass.” He offered the specimen to Darian.
The business grad shrugged his broad shoulders. “So what? Unless it makes the steaks on this planet exceptionally thick, I don't see the benefit of having three-sided grass. Except as a reason to sell high-powered lawn mowers.”
“Having three surfaces could optimize photosynthesis,” Tristan said, almost to himself. “And I can't tell in this light, but the surface appears much greener than the grass back home.”
“Meaning ..?” Darian asked.
“It's just an initial theory. But it's possible this grass could provide more nutrients to first-order consumers.” He handed the grass back to Clara.
“What's a first-order consumer?” Aliyah asked.
“Herbivores. Plant-eaters. Cows, horses, deer, buffalo, goats ...”
Aliyah held up her hand. “Thanks. I get it now, Tristan.”
Clara had an interesting thought. “Do you think this grass could support larger plant eaters than we have on Earth?”
“Large? How large?” Aliyah asked. “Like rabbits the size of buses or something?”
“Not quite. I was thinking more along the lines of …” She suddenly felt sheepish.
“Of?” Darian prompted.
Having raised the subject, Clara felt committed to the predicate. “… of dinosaurs?”
Raven arched an eyebrow. “Dinosaurs? Really?”
“It's not impossible,” Tristan interjected. “After all, Earth used to have larger plants to support such creatures. If the other vegetation on Elpis 7 is plentiful and dense in nutrients, it wouldn't shock me to find some dinosaur equivalents here.”
“The reason I bring it up is because of something he said,” Clara nodded in the direction of the the commander steering the craft. “He mentioned this planet was still untamed. Haven't you noticed how high we're traveling off the ground, especially for a hovercraft?”
“I want to go home.” Aliyah announced, resolutely crossing her arms across her chest. “I didn't sign up to get taken hostage or chased by a T-Rex. Not uh. Not me. Nope.”
Raven gave Clara a reprimanding glance. “That's probably enough theories for now. Don't worry, Aliyah. I bet they fly this high to conserve fuel so they can travel in a straight line to the settlement instead of having to go over each and every foothill.”
“Who's theorizing, now?” Darian muttered.
Raven ignored him and looked toward the left where the last vestige of Elpis light had turned the western horizon purple.
Clara rubbed her calf muscle, then leaned back in her seat and take in the night sky. Cascading curtains of stars draped across the heavens. They shone so brightly, they cast the interns' shadows on the hovercraft floor.
Sydney had always liked stargazing. Their parents kept a telescope next to the window in the home office and had taught them to find all the constellations in the northern hemisphere. Was Sydney using the telescope tonight trying to find Elpis 7? Clara looked up and tried to pick out a familiar pattern, but soon remembered she was millions of light years from Ursa Major, Orion, and Pegasus. These skies – glorious as they were – seemed cold and alien. And against the cosmic vastness of the universe, she felt like a speck of insignificance. Her throat tightened as her desire to return home far eclipsed every other plan she'd had for the summer.
Then Clara saw something through the hovercraft windshield. She squinted. No, she was not mistaken – a whitish-blue haze glowed in the distance. Clara rubbed her eyes. Whatever it was was big enough to illuminate the clouds' undersides. “Guys ...” she said as she pointed out the windshield. “What's that?”
As her teammates rose to get a better look, the commander turned for the first time to his passengers. “Sit down!” he ordered. “You're interfering with our balance!”
The team obeyed.
“Excuse me, sir,” Raven said. “What's making that light ahead?”
The commander raised his arm to indicate the place in question. “That, young lady, is our destination.”
Tristan readjusted his glasses. “That's quite a settlement, sir.”
“Settlement?!” The commander looked over his shoulder and repeated the word as if it were an insult. “That is the city of Agilis – the shining jewel of the Silex tribe.” Convinced no further explanation was needed, he turned back to his screens, leaving the interns once again wide-eyed and bewildered.
“So they do have a city,” Clara said solo voce. “I thought he was just exaggerating.”
“But this doesn't make any sense!” Tristan hissed. “There were only forty colonists who left Earth! How the heck could they build a city that size in only nine months?!”
Darian leaned forward, keeping a wary eye on the commander. “Did the brief say whether anyone else lived on this planet before Captain Karnak arrived? Like a native civilization or anything?”
“No!” Tristan shook his head. “The initial space probes only found indigenous animals – no humans. There were no cities, settlements, or structures of any kind. And there's been no communication since the original forty left Earth. We took the first available wormhole here, remember?”
Aliyah shifted in her seat. “Do you think another group settled here after the colonists from Earth arrived? What if they killed off our colonists and don't want us to tell anyone about it?”
“I doubt that's the case,” Raven said. “The commander referred to Captain Karnak as 'His Eminence.'”
“You do have a point there,” Darian admitted. “Anyway, there's no use worrying over what we can't know 'til we get where we're going.”
Raven raised her brows in surprise. “That's the smartest thing I've ever heard you say, Darian.”
“I have my moments.” Darian leaned back against his seat and closed his eyes.
Despite reassurances, Clara could not tamp down her rising apprehension. But Agilis grew closer and closer with its ominous blue light. In minutes she would be within its walls, and what would happen to her there only time would tell.
So what do you think?
Any guesses as to what Agilis may hold for our team? Have you even visited (or been dropped off in) a completely different culture? How did you cope? Tell me in the comments below!