Charger Nine by Karen L. Hallam
This story originally appeared in Alien Dimensions #13
Waves lift and churn, I straighten and look out across the sea. Blazing full moon above, handsome and thoughtful Kyle behind me, with the “others” in the dining hall. While I become familiar with the poop deck, which is where I’m likely to spend the rest of my time, considering.
What did I eat? They won’t believe there aren’t ulterior motives for coming on this trip, inviting myself, that is. Sure, diamonds are nice and fuel my Charger Nine, and what they’re likely to believe.
“Cassandra.” Kyle’s soft voice, caring, and ignorant to what ten clicks tomorrow brings. Suppose I’d made enough of a scene he had to come out and search.
Making sure to wipe any dribble, I turn around. “Kyle, I’m sorry.”
He places his over-sized hands on my bare shoulders, stabilizing me, warming me from the chill. “Are you all right?” Eyes peer down, because he, too, is over-sized, being of Tinterlune descent.
“Merle doesn’t think the submersion can wait. He’s getting nervous.”
“He’s right in this instance.”
“What do you want me to say?” Tender eyes, remorseful, still, his words are firm. “Running off in the middle of detailed planning and not recognizing the Turning Arc on the map,” he says, laughing deep in his chest.
Is he mocking me?
“If I didn’t know better I’d think you were a spy.” He leans in and searches my eyes.
I step back. “Sorry, my stomach couldn’t take it.”
“You have nerves of steel, Cassandra.”
“It’s the ship.” In truth, it’s the food. And I thought a soupy dish and mystery pate would go down with ease? I have to find algae for sustenance or my energy will drop to a quarter percent before long.
The Canoid keep the healthiest batches near them. I might not make it ‘til tomorrow. I have to reach them tonight. When Kyle turns in he won’t be watching my every move.
“You told Merle you were in the Navy, remember?” he says. “It’s not me you have to convince. I know your worth.” A relaxed smile sits on his face, the mask he wears. In another time or another place, I could fall for him.
“Is the party on the deck?” Merle Shiller walks out shouting, with his arms in the air.
“You didn’t leave Mrs. Shiller alone at the table with Christopher?” Kyle asks.
“Oh, she’ll be fine, Betsy can hold her own.” Merle leans against the side rail, as though he’s settling in for a long lecture, and pulls out a pocket watch from his vest. After a glance, he looks out on the sea.
His gray hair, long and wiry, doesn’t move in the wind. “It’s just as well,” he says, and lights a smoke without fail. After a long pull of the nauseously sweet-smelling stick, he asks, “Feeling any better?”
“Top shape.” I square my shoulders and hook my thumb to the belt holding my Eraser. One of three in my squad, I learned how to use the tool. Tarpan taught me, trusting I would use it most prudently. The small innocuous tube could hold oxygen, enough to build a bubble for an entire planet. I would use the nearby moon as a safe zone.
“How’d you manage in the Navy and suffer so?” The look in Meryl’s eye holds suspicion. Or is my guilt superseding logic?
“Comes and goes.” I hope we can leave it at that. Kyle is behind me and moves closer. Feeling protective? It wouldn’t go both ways for us.
I have a mission and he’d be caught in it, if one had any sympathy for a Tinterlune Troupe mercenary. What a laugh. They think they’re doing a great service bringing ships that spew sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. More ships would come, from systems too young to know the dangers of fluorocarbons.
Many on Cloraleenleft for other systems, only the diehards stay on the planet. Thinking they can save the race of Canoid.
But the Canoid won’t leave.
I’ve been to the caves. I’ve spoken with them and learned their language. They want to wither with the planet when the crossing occurs.
The only other recourse if we want to help is to trick them. They’re the stewards of the animals, those that survived the last extinction event. The animals wouldn’t survive without their help, not this time.
The Canoid survived by hiding in their caves. Caves made centuries ago that traverse deep within the landscape of the planet. The Great One showed me.
The gas would enter the caves, making the Canoida first casualty. My duty is to help them survive.
Kyle’s loyalty wasn’t to the indigenous people, or to me. He had a superior. I’m a free agent. I answer to Kostex only. Pulse activated radio.
Kostex is on Charger Nine. My vehicle was apprehended by hostile valley dwellers; it’s where I met Kyle, making deals over a land-sprinter.
Smart, adorable Kyle, almost one hundred years older than me, but you wouldn’t know. Our systems are a light-year away, but bear many similarities.
He looks like a cadet, meanwhile, here on Cloraleen I appear older, aging beyond my 60 cycles. Years of training, and as the youngest in my squad, I proved to be the most agile, and given this mission. However, this planet has put years on and it’s wearing me down. The stomach issue is just the latest torment. I should have brought more nosh squares.
I’d be heading into recruit school, only I got an early pass because I learned the Canoidlanguage the fastest. Tarpan says I have humanoid DNA, hence my propensity for languages. Not a compliment, considering humans were said to be the most destructive in the Universe.
Would my human-like malleability prove useful or a detriment? Created in a lab, as we all are on planet Nautinka, you can’t blame me.
Kyle was likely created the old-fashion way, I couldn’t blame him, either. So, I don’t. I pretend we’re on equal footing. Helping each other. He is cute, but I may have to kill him if he tries to stop me.
“She’ll be right as rain by morning,” he says to Merle. “I’ll bet it was the bisque.” Kyle nods, covering for me. He doesn’t even know why he’s covering for me.
Merle smashes his smoke on the rail and turns again to the sea. “Beautiful isn’t it. Peaceful almost. Endless water across the planet, no one would know that below, it’s rumbling and ready to burst.”
“But we can help them, right?” I interrupt his waxing.
“Navy girl, of the Royal Nautinka—if you can’t who will?”
I swallow the knot in my throat. That is my plan. Being one-third amphibian, I can travel below the sea and up into the caves were theCanoid live and try to reason with them. They’d only have to leave the planet for a short time. Otherwise, they’d have to relocate to a similar climate, which we haven’t found yet.
If the gasses haven’t evaporated in the 24 hours, the oxygen bubble I create may not hold any longer.
“Tarpan said you could communicate with the Canoid, and they are stubborn.” Merle turns to face me, leaning against the banister as if he has full confidence everything will work out. That the Canoid will survive.
Their survival is important for the entire star system. They hold the records of our history, the history of an entire civilization of the Conical Star System.
Losing our history would create a void, a fissure wide enough a new history could replace it, for all timelines. Only with holes and missing pieces, it could change the building blocks of matter. I might not even be alive if that were to happen.
If I can’t convince the Canoid to leave before 10 clicks tomorrow, when the ships come in, and make a path for each Canoid’s escape, while also opening an oxygen bubble off planet, the gas will displace all the oxygen from this planet. Killing most life.
It’s the only way to give the Canoid, and us, a chance at surviving this.
“Yes, I’ve been trained,” I say plainly. “I set off at first sunrise.”
“We’ll be right behind you,” Kyle says.
“You mean hover, five-hundred mijurs above.” I make sure we’re clear. His armada can’t go underwater. Thankfully.
“That’s why I decided to send Bet with you,” Merle interrupts and turns toward the ship’s door, smiling as though he’s cornered a tiger. Mrs. Shiller walks onto the deck, in full regalia from the general assembly.
“Betsy, my dear.”
She smiles, glowing with a secret. “Or, Canoid,” he says, as she morphs into a Canoid youth.”
Impressive. “Your plan is to deceive them?” I ask.
“Not at all. If they hear from one of their own they’ll understand the weight of the situation and know they must leave. Temporarily.”
“You should explain how this works,” Kyle says. Can I count on him to be in my favor?
“Cassandra goes into the sea,” Merle says breezily, “where she can access the tunnels, and take the Canoid off-planet.”
“And Betsy just hangs around?” I ask. “None of them leave the caves. The solar rays would disintegrate them. They’ll know she’s a decoy.”
He pulls his wife closer. Quiet as she was at the table, I realize under the moonlight, she’s automation. Betsy’s automated to morph into whatever program Merle has. “She can self-destruct—if needed.” His eyes turn cross, maybe regretful having to sacrifice a beloved toy. “We regroup at first sunrise.” With the wave of his hand, Merle dismisses us.
Kyle walks toward me, ready to give his interpretation or contradict Merle’s plan, and I ask him to hold off until the morning. I hurry to my stateroom. He isn’t following this time. I close the door and lock it with my sensor and turn on my map.
As soon as the ship crosses the elliptic, I’ll dive in. They expect to begin at first sunrise, but things have changed. I have to reach the Canoid first.
They’ll have to hyper-jump to the safe zone after I make an air pocket and wait the 24 hours on the dark side of the moon until the planet has finished crossing the second sun. This event happens every 1,000 years. I may or may not be here for the next crossing. Saving them meant saving an entire system.
#
Standing on the stern, watching the wake rush past, I dive and sink until I see their lights. Luminous quartz stones guard the caves.
They already know I’m here. Shoen, the Great One approaches with her escort, and ushers me closer. I quietly follow Shoen out of the water and onto a limestone ledge.
“Eat this,” she says, handing me the life-giving algae. Her eyes shine, happy to see me, and now I have the strength to help them.
“Thank you.” I sit a moment and figure out how to explain. “Where are the others?”
She says they’re waiting with the animals. If I don’t do this right, the gas will kill every living being before the second sunset.
“I want to begin making tunnels to the moon’s dark side, but the ships that’ll help hold the shield aren’t here, not until tomorrow. The more time I have, the stronger the filaments will be.”
Shoen nods, though she already knows. She motions to her escort and together they walk toward the others. One hundred and forty Canoid are left, and Shoen asks them to be ready.
I leave the caves and swim to the nearest boulder protruding from the sea. I climb onto the rock and begin.
With my Erasure pointed at the moon, I loop my wrist, and watch the burning laser trace lines and circles into the dark sky, until the scribbles land on the dark side of the full moon. I release my breath.
The first sun would rise soon and the eclipse would follow. The ladder needs to be finished before the second sunrise, giving me little time to get the Canoid to safety. It would shield them from the sunlight.
I have to hold the line until the light creates a tunnel. It wouldn’t be completely safe without the ships’ reinforcements and their ability to catch anything that falls. Which reminds me. With my other hand, I tap the communicator on my belt. “Charger, meet me at my coordinates.” My Charger could hold the line, but I still needed reinforcements.
I wait, maybe the length of a Nautinka Navy song when Charger Nine approaches.
“What took so long? My arm’s about to fall off.”
Your coordinates were hidden until I broke through.
I’d scrambled my tracker in case Kyle tried to locate me.
“Fair enough. Take over, will you.” My Charger takes up the light filaments, keeping them in rotation. “We need a little more time, just hold it steady. I’ll be right back.”
Affirmative, Captain.
“Is Kostex on alert?”
Affirmative.
I’ll dive under and up into the first tunnel. The Canoid may not trust me, although being half humanoid they have their reasons. I had to convince them I born of Nautinka Royalty as well, my better half. Shoen came to my defense. Now, I hope they’ll follow me.
I wasn’t about to allow Meryl’s entourage anything to do with them. I think he wants the Canoid to perish. Put them into a specimen’s tank for peering eyes.
Not on my watch.
In the caves, Shoen approaches. Her long kelp-like hair lashes out and whips behind her. There’s little time to waste, and she knows it. After a nod, she turns to her people waiting, like statues that haven’t moved since the last time I was here.
I don’t hear their language, a language so old they speak silently. She turns to me and opens her hand. Inside, a jade-green teardrop amulet is tied to a string. An offering. She explains it will protect me if I’m left behind. I don’t want to be left behind. I breathe oxygen too.
There’s rumbling. The cave shakes. The fissures are about to burst wide open. I wave for the group to follow and we dive underwater. There’re so many Canoid, and animals too. Common creatures I’ve seen before, with others, specific to this region of the Universe. I would not allow them to perish.
Under the water, I hear the Canoid jump, two by two, for as long as it takes me to resurface, and I lead the convoy to my Charger Nine, still holding the light tunnel. The rocking of the planet makes the stairway sway, but the light is tethered and should hold tight. The Royal Nauntika made it, and I stand by all of our inventions.
Then I see the ships. The Tinterlune Troupe Mercenary, are in the sky. They’ll believe I’m a traitor and sabotaging my part of the bargain. It was my mission to begin with, however, by not being completely truthful—they’d better not mess up my light ladder.
Tarpan wanted me for this mission. He knew Shoen would only agree with another female she could trust, and I for one, never had plans to deceive them. Meryl just might, and Kyle, I’m unsure of his loyalties.
But there he is, up in the sky. The planet’s shaking and the Canoid are terrified of the sunlight, more than the shaking, although the sun is now half-hidden in the dark.
“Don’t look at the sun!” I warn repeatedly, while they help each other climb onto the rock. “Not until it’s eclipsed.” We’d better be on the dark side of the moon before the second sun, which would not be eclipsed.
The tunnel sways and bulges, the Canoid are escaping. Shoen waits with me, while Kyle’s ship hovers and lands beside us.
He exits the craft and takes his time walking toward me. The expression he wears is a mask, a cool and detached smile, as though he were automated. I stand, hand at my Erasure, ready to wrap him in light filaments if needed.
“No need to worry, Cassandra, I only wanted to make sure things went off without a hitch.” His laugh is suspicious, and he continues walking closer.
I motion for Shoen to hurry into the tunnel. The sun is completely eclipsed, while the second sun begins to rise, casting the sky in a pink glow. Kyle is luminous, almost handsome, but something I can’t explain tugs at my reasoning.
“Thought you needed reinforcements,” he says, “so I’m here.”
“I’m nearly finished, Shoen’s the last to enter.”
“What about you?”
“I must wait until she’s safely inside. My Charger will pull me off planet, separately.” My Charger was doing Kyle’s job, or the one he said he’d help with.
“You were lucky. Good thing you arrived sooner than we’d planned.”
“It was part intuition.”
“Navy training?”
“I could feel it in my bones.”
“And you were right.” His last words reverberate because the planet is shaking harder than before. A waterspout blasts out of the sea behind Kyle. He turns, briefly to witness. More waterspouts spit up from the sea, until five or more geysers pulse into the sky. Kyle speaks, but the rushing waters drown his words.
He walks closer.
I’ll seal the tube soon as Shoen’s lands on the moon. Kyle reaches out, is he trying to make a move for my Erasure? I can’t hear what he’s saying, and then, the rest of the Tinterlune Troupe mercenaries’ exit their crafts and form a U shape around Kyle.
The waters are rising and I smell the gas. Sweet and sticky as Merle’s smoking stick, I almost gag.
“You won’t need this,” Kyle says, reaching for my tool.
There’s nowhere to run. To my left are mercenaries, and to my right. They’ve cornered me. I knew I couldn’t trust him. He’s wearing that stupid smile, all sure of himself. I felt the urge to smack it off. There’s no time for petty aggravations; I tap the communicator on my belt.
“We have your Charger.” He pulls a weapon from behind his back. “It’s safe.”
“From whom? There won’t be anything left on this planet if we don’t protect its civilization. I had my orders to help the Canoid, and you could help the desert dwellers, since they’re your friends.”
He laughs. I don’t believe he’s taken my Charger. I tap my belt again. The lie wears on his face in smugness.
The light on my belt dims, Charger Nine isn’t getting my signal. A mercenary grabs my arms and holds me steady. He smells rancid.
“If we don’t leave, we’re all going to suffocate!” I plead, but don’t they know this already?
“We have our ships on standby,” Kyle says.
I wrestle from the wet and smelly body behind me and pull ahead. His weight would topple me in an instant.
“What do you want? Aside from my Charger?”
“You–and your belt. I wanted to see it in action. It takes us three to four ships to create a light tunnel as strong as your Erasure. Pretty impressive.”
“So, you’re basically a scavenger, is that right?” And I thought I could fall for him? How embarrassing.
“For now.” Kyle appears in double vision with the excess shaking. He orders me to his ship. I’m pulled over separating rocks and plants, while the gas continues rising and I hold my breath. I’m not going down this easy. I peer around for my Charger.
Kyle couldn’t have my vehicle; Charger is far more advanced than anyone of Tinterlunedescent. As we round the corner of the ship, my elbow flies up and clocks the stinky mercenary on the nose, and I pull up my Eraser. They didn’t even take my tool. I run!
They won’t shoot me because the place is flooded in flammable gas. However, they are running after me. I run faster.
I trip, and fall face first into a gas bubble. Arms lift me up and I know from their shape it’s him.
“Let’s go!” Kyle orders.
I don’t struggle anymore because I can’t breathe. The oxygen on the planet is nearly depleted.
After a hard thud and a slight head pinch, I find the Tinterlune Troupe craft surrounding me.
“Rest here a minute.”
“You fool, we need to hold the oxygen on the moon for the Canoid.”
“Yes, I know.”
I look around. We’re alone on his ship. He thinks he can take me alone? He has no idea of the amount of defense training I’ve had.
“We’re going there now.”
I’m confused until his ship makes a sharp turn and leaves the rest of his Troupe behind.
Now, I am surprised. “You’re going against protocol?”
“The Troupe wanted to bring the Canoid back to Tinterlune, where they’d be ridiculed and quickly die off.” He turns, speaks his language into a speaker then looks up at me. “My father, Admiral Tonka of Argyll, became a Nautinka scientist when he was banished from Tinterlune.”
“What was he banished for?”
“Pretty much what I’m doing now.”
“We need to get up there and make sure Shoen holds the oxygen. We’d planned to use the quartz shield that protects their caves until the crossing finished and wait out the gases.
“Ah, but the gas will take longer to subside. You need me.” He gets that twinkle in his eye I’ve seen once before. The ship pulls forward and I’m knocked back into a control panel.
“I was supposed to reinforce the shield with my Erasure.”
“Well, now it’s a sure thing,” he says. “Protecting the Canoid long enough that they can return to the safety of their caves.”
“What about the rest of your Troupe? Aren’t they going to stop us?”
“No, not any longer. The Tinterlune want to help the Canoid, only they didn’t realize the depth of problems with their plan. I’m in charge. Most of those ships out there.” His head motions toward the ships on view through the observatory. The few now gather around the luminous moon. “They’re automated, and programmed to do as I say.”
Resting on the console a little more comfortably, I ask, “And their ships are going to hold the shield?” Just to make sure.
He nods and continues programing.
I watch the ships hold the oxygen bubble I made. With the Tinterlune’s power they could hold it for a full day’s cycle, or longer if needed. The gasses are expected to evaporate after the two sunsets. We’d have to make sure the caves were safe for Shoen and her people to return.
“We’re working together.” He smiles. “If you’d been open from the beginning, instead of suspicious of me, we could have done away with our little chase scene. You could have actually hurt yourself, and then what?”
I laugh under my breath. He’s trying to be humorous. “I think I’ve read about your father in our Volumes. He was revered.”
“Went against protocol to protect the people of Tinterlune, only it didn’t end well.”
“He sacrificed much.”
Kyle shakes his head. “And erased from our history books, but I do find comfort he lives on in yours.”
I lean over the observatory and watch the Tinterlune ships. “They’ll obey your every word?”
“Indeed.” He stops programming and walks over to meet me at the window.
“What will you do after? I ask.
“Make sure they’re all settled in.”
“Not the Canoid. I mean, when you can’t return to your planet?”
“Nothing much there for me. I’ve completely my mandatory mission.”
“No, you’ve corrupted the mission, thankfully.” I offer a small smile; he did help a great deal. There was no guarantee Shoen and I could have held the oxygen alone, let alone for as long as it would take for the gas to subside.
“The Canoid system has much to offer.” He gazes around. Is he waiting for me to say something?
“Where’re Meryl and his decoy?”
His face turns down. “They’re on the same page. No worries. He was concerned about you, but I told him not to be. I knew your intentions were only to help the Canoid.” As he moves closer I catch an odor somewhat like the metallic rain on Tinterlune. “Even if you didn’t trust me.”
I cross my arms. “That’s not true—not entirely. I mean, I wasn’t sure of course, in my training trust is hard to come by.”
“Understood.” He takes my hand. “I am at your service, Lieutenant Cassandra, and I will serve the Royal Nauntinka, as my father did.” He kisses my hand, and bows!
I’m rather enjoying this.
“So, we’re on the same team?”
He nods and we look out through the observatory where I see Charger Nine with the other ships holding the field of light.