Chapter Six: Precious Cargo — Part 4
“Our long-range telescope has locked onto a ship. It’s so small that we only noticed it because it activated our planet’s close-range defense sensors. It is human in origin, so C’rona has asked that you decide its fate.” Ajoshi said, sounding anxious.
A’joshi, who had grown a strong resemblance to his father, rushed across the water, three of his seven legs maneuvering poles to push his boat along. He was moving so awkwardly that he looked like he might capsize the boat. It was apparent, at least to Susan, that what had previously been an it, that is, a native whose gender hadn’t developed, was now most probably shaping itself into a male. Still a child though, as far as Susan was concerned.
“All right A’joshi. Calm down already.” Susan jumped on the boat. “Pull your poles in, I’ll take over.”
A’joshi dropped his poles inside the boat, drew his legs in and sat down with his head below the prow. A lantern hung to the front of the boat, waving back and forth with A’joshi’s steady strokes, starting to steady now that he was no longer involved in the rowing. Susan put her verdo staff to the water, its tip lit white hot, and the lantern glowed brighter in response.
Within a few seconds the boat lurched, then burst forward at close to sixty miles an hour. As she traveled, she called Drake and Laura with her mind, urging them to be ready to move quickly, should she need their help. Susan kept her chest close to the baseboard, her eyes straight ahead. Her black hair whipped straight behind her. The mist passed her so fast it seemed animated. After twenty minutes of exhausting speed, the swampland opened into grassy marshland. Susan smiled, A’joshi moaned in complaint.
Susan concentrated all her will, pushing the small boat even faster. Its wooden planks groaned as it skipped across the surface of the water like a great flat stone. In the distance she could sense more than see the web nests of the Antansi tribe, and Susan slowed significantly. She pulled the verdo staff from the water and set it on the baseboard, readying herself for the eventual collision. Once it hit shore, the boat bounced a couple more times, lurched to a stop, slamming against the base of an ancient tree, only to fall back and settle against a muddy shore.
A’joshi still trembling with fear, crawled from the ship, and immediately began complaining. “One of these days you’re going to hit a rock or something, and we’re both going to get squashed. You don’t see Elder C’rona running around at shell crushing speeds.”
“Live life dangerously, or else live in a cave.” Susan climbed up into the nest, leaving A’joshi alone.
“I’ll never understand humans.” He said in his native tongue.
C’rona wasted no time with formalities. “A’joshi has undoubtedly told you of our discovery. A small ship entered the edge of our solar system a few hours ago. It’s on a controlled course, heading toward our planet. We identified it a couple of days ago as a spacecraft made by your species. We identified it as a survival pod just moments ago – after we sent A’joshi to retrieve you. It is capable of holding four of your people within it.”
“If it has anybody inside, we’ll take care of them.” Susan said. “Where and when are they due to set down?”
“They’ll be setting down roughly halfway across our native continent, in the dark lands. They will hit ground tomorrow, very early in the morning, in that part of the world, where flesh eaters will surround them. They’ll be in some of the most dangerous terrain on the planet. We can send a small party through a gravity well to a position near their crash site. But the place isn’t tame like our local swamp. One of the Others holds that land, so you’ll have to walk quietly.”
Susan sent out a single strand of thought, explaining the situation to Drake and Laura. Within the hour Drake and Laura came out of the watery mist to greet her. She explained the situation in full detail once they arrived, and Drake took out a map of Mistaven, the human name for the lands composed of C’rona and Susan’s combined nations. “How far is it to these Dark Lands, and can we get there without using a gravity well?”
A’joshi stared at the map incomprehensibly. “Dark lands are many days travel, even at Susan’s insane pace. Gravity wells are much safer, too, considering that we have the landing points well considered, and well mapped.”
Drake groaned. “Yeah, well it’s the landings that suck. You either get dislodged in a treetop or find yourself sucked twenty feet under water.”
After careful consideration, Susan opted for the gravity well. “We’ll have more time to secure the area.”
Laura started to object. “Maybe you should stay behind on this one, being the Leader and all.”
“You just want to have all the adventure for yourself.” Susan said. “Besides, nobody’s better with a verdo staff than me. Would you like to come with, A’joshi?”
“I think I’ll wait for you crazy people to come back dead.” A’joshi said.
“Take care of your Queen, then, until I get back.” Susan said.
Once aboard her boat, Susan signaled telepathically her readiness to depart. The Antansi used their alien technology to turn her thought into action, sending her thousands of miles across harsh terrain and landing her and her boat about twenty feet above the surface of the water. The boat fell, bounced twice, and then sort of bobbed up and down on the residual waves, and Drake, for one, was happy. The boat had moaned with each bounce, but it had held together, mostly due to its superior design. Susan had not considered the fact that she would be in a whole other part of the world, one several hours closer to sunset than her world was. The clouds were darker, night was falling, and a storm threatened. Cautious, Susan forced the boat ashore and opted for a light bit of sleep, one person on watch, so that everybody could sleep in shifts. She wondered if the pod had any survivors in it, she wouldn’t know until sometime near sunrise. Just before dawn, the sound of the impact shook the air and ground, and Susan led her friends across blackened, sludge-like soil, and across the edge of a fresh impact crater. The pod had landed intact, and Susan knew before its hatch opened that those within were human.
