Alpha Rising (22 page)

As they neared the ship, the last light from
the daystar faded and Bach let out a little yelp, “What’s going
on?”

High on Alpha’s framework, outlined by the
ship’s running lights, stood Wisdom and her mate, guarding a
collection of En Gedi’s animals gathered outside the ship.

“
I can’t believe it,” he
said. “I forgot that we were supposed to bring animals.”

Urich nodded knowingly. “Wisdom has
completed her work. This is why she left to travel far. I did not
understand why she was gone longer than ever before. She was
herding the animals.”

When they reached the ship, the four
dismounted and Urich led his stallion forward. “Board the stallions
first. The rest of En Gedi’s animals will follow,” he said. “The
bird and her mate will enter last. They will have the final look
around.”

*****

With Rain and Urich settled in the
environmental module and the animals secured, Bach fired Alpha’s
thrusters and departed En Gedi. Star added Urich’s and Rain’s names
to the roster.

All of a sudden, radar clangged a jarring
warning and three blips showed up on the screen.

Bach grumbled. “Rooks are back! Caught us in
the dark. Whoa! Movin’ along fast … comin’ from all
directions.”

Star initialized defense systems. “Sound
alarm in passengers’ module and engage stabilizers for
animals.”

“
Secure.” Bach checked the
viewscreen image. The Rooks’ ships were so close he thought he saw
the lights in their cockpits. “Star!”

“
Increase fuel burn,” she
instructed.

“
Fuel burn
increased.”

She tapped on the touchpad. “Hold on!”

Alpha rocketed through space, blowing off
the enemy as if their ships were paper airplanes.

Bach gloated. “I
love
this
technology.”

“
We burned a lot of fuel,”
she stated. “But gained time.”

He looked out the window at a tiny planet in
the distance. “We’ve got light from another daystar for our next
stop. What does the journal say?”

Star read, “‘Gihon, the smallest planet in
the Balal zone, has a variety of trees with nourishing, edible
leaves, and plants with flavored roots. Gihon’s inhabitants’ keen
senses foresee with clarity events having not yet occurred, and
they have the ability, at times, to communicate by thought alone.
Highly prized is a natural fountain of intoxicating, aquamarine
water.’”

Bach’s grin turned impish. “Oh, no. Maybe we
should save Gihon for last. If we get into the sparkling
water….”

She squinted her eyes. “You
will
not
drink
any.”

*****

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

The clear blue skies over Gihon mesmerized
Bach on approach. Flickering remnants of exploded meteorites
twinkling in the daylight seemed close enough for him to reach out
and touch, and a misty green arc, like a monochrome rainbow,
spanned the area directly over the landing pad.

Bach and Star stepped from the ship, and a
dozen short statured inhabitants, wearing colorful clothing and
sporting big smiles, greeted them enthusiastically. Two little
people grabbed the Alphamates by the hands and pulled them along
toward their village, running as fast as their short legs could
go.

“
Hey, take it easy, we just
got here,” Bach said, chuckling. “What’s the hurry?” The little
people seemed not to hear. “Star, talk to them,” he
pled.

“
They speak the common
language,” she said, keeping pace. “But they’re used to
communicating without words; they forget we can’t do that.” She
looked down at a man in green coveralls clinging to her right arm.
His head came to her shoulders. “Why are we rushing?”

“
We knew someone special
was coming … knew it.” His words rolled out with glee. “We’ve a
celebration in progress. Many thrills, many thrills. Lots of fun,
sparkling water, lots of fun.”

Star asked the little man a question,
already knowing the answer. “Did you drink sparkling water?”

His steps faltered and he stared up at her.
“My dear, a required ritual—every day—to keep the mean spirits
away—every day.”

A little lady in a diaphanous pink robe
fluttering in the breeze yanked on Star’s other hand, and in a
voice as delicate as the ring of a porcelain bell echoed her mate’s
words. “To keep the mean spirits away, everyday … everyday.”

Another man decked out in shimmering red
overalls ran alongside. Struggling to keep up, he managed to say,
“We’ve been working, working very hard. We’ve been planning,
planning for this day. We knew someone was coming. Knew it.”

“
How did you know?” Bach
asked.

“
We have the gift!” the man
snapped, as if Bach should have known. “Everyone has a gift.
Foresight’s our gift. We’re special!”

“
We’re special, special.
It’s a gift, a gift,” gushed the lady in the pink robe.

#

The entourage of short statured people
disbursed as soon as they reached the township, leaving Bach and
Star in the midst of what appeared a mystical celebration.
Businesses along the town’s narrow main street had closed for the
day so pedestrians could mingle and browse two-foot high tables set
up along the curbs. Dozens of Gihon’s merchants, some of whom had
colorful birds perched on their shoulders and heads like hood
ornaments, hawked their wares to the bustling crowd.

At first, Bach and Star stood off to one
side, trying to take it all in and decide where best to start their
search. Table after table featured intriguing bibelots, decks of
cards, clear and colored crystal balls, sparkling and opaque
amulets in every shape and size, and baubles decorated with suns,
moons, and stars.

Bach looked around grumbling, “This won’t be
easy.”

Stepping into the crowd, the two were
distracted from their symbol search in a matter of minutes. Bach
stopped at one table to check out a myriad of dazzling trinkets,
while Star headed to a red-haired lady’s display. The lady
straightened the items on her table and pretended not to notice
Star examining a large flat rock with a mirror in the center and a
marble-sized red ball free-floating above it. She spoke to Star
without looking up. “I can tell you’re too smart to believe it’s
magic.”

Star grinned and nodded. “It’s a clever
example of magnetic resistance.”

The woman held out her hand and offered Star
a dime-sized piece of white candy. Star took it, but didn’t put in
her mouth. The lady put a piece into her own mouth and focused on
Star’s face. “Watch closely.” She chomped down hard on the candy
with her back teeth and kept her mouth open as much as possible. A
spray of blue sparks shot from her mouth.

Star laughed out loud. “Triboluminescence.”
She bit down on her piece of candy and looked into the rock mirror
to get the full sparkling effect.

“
Sugars from the green
root,” the red-haired lady offered. Her green eyes seemed to
laugh.

The two chatted as if they’d known each
other all their lives, sharing information about their respective
planets. Suddenly, the lady grabbed Star’s hands and stared at
something as if she were the only one who could see it. “The
Specter will wreak havoc with a chosen few. His presence hovers in
the air … hovers.”

The urgency delivered in the vendor’s words
turned Star back to the mission. She thanked the lady for her
insight and headed off to catch up with Bach. He wasn’t close by,
so she searched both sides of the street. Unable to find him, she
called out his name. When he didn’t answer, she called again,
louder, but her voice blended into the street noise. She hurried
from table to table in the bustling crowd, but he was nowhere
around. The staircase of a nearby building seemed a perfect lookout
point, so she climbed to the landing for a panoramic view of the
area. Her partner was gone. “I couldn’t have lost him just like
that!” she said to herself in near panic. “And he’s so much taller,
I should find him easily.”

Merging back into the crowd, she started at
one end of the street and stepped up her pace as she neared the
other end. After briefly searching through all the displays, she
stopped at the last merchant’s table and looked ahead to where the
paved road ended and a grassy trail led through woodlands beyond.
“Have you seen a tall man with brown hair, dressed in a silver
jumpsuit?” she asked.

The vendor had treasure maps of paper and
cloth in all shapes and sizes on display. He turned away without a
word and searched through dozens of long cardboard tubes standing
on end in a bin. Eventually, he found the tube he was looking for.
He lifted it from the bin, stuck his fingers into the open end and
removed a colorful piece of cloth. He set it on the table in front
of Star and, as if handling priceless artwork, carefully unwound
the fabric to reveal an imprinted map.

She touched the fabric. “Searching for
treasure is fascinating, but I don’t have time. I’ve lost my
crewmate.”

Eyes twinkling, the man
pointed to a spot on the map. “Your crewmate is the treasure here,”
he said, referencing an
x
inside of a circle.

“
My crewmate is there?” she
asked.

“
X
marks the spot,” the little man replied with a
chuckle.

Star looked at the
x
in the circle, then
glanced around to get her bearings.

The man pushed the map into her hands and
pointed toward the woodlands. “That way … beyond where the dirt
trail ends.”

Star entered the hardwood
forest and found the abundance of shade trees and flowering plants
made it hard to see more than a few feet ahead. As she walked
deeper through the lush foliage and flowering shrubs, the air
turned fresher, but the surroundings looked the same and there were
no landmarks, so she stopped to check the map. From deeper within
the cool, quiet forest came a hum, a soothing hum, like the joyous
whispers of people in love. Following the sound she headed left,
past a thicket of white, pear-scented flowers. The soft sighs grew
louder and delicate strains of woodwind instruments blended in. She
passed under an archway of purple flowers that towered high above
her head, and came to a well-worn path. It wound left, then right,
and after twenty yards ended near a dense, ten-foot-high growth of
lacy green leaves the size of dinner plates. Music came from the
other side. She looked at the map. Beyond the foliage was the spot
marked by the
x
.
With the map tucked inside her jumpsuit, she parted the foliage
just enough to see.

In an arena-sized clearing
bordered by flowering plants and shrubs, two-dozen little people,
some playing instruments, sang and danced with glee around an
erratically erupting fountain of aquamarine water. “The sparkling
water!” Star watched in amusement as each six-foot-high burst of
tingling bubbly water sent the little people into giggling,
splashing fits. She would have stayed to watch, but there was no
time to spare. She had to find Bach and,
x
or no
x
, this wasn’t the spot.

As she turned to leave, a small voice called
out, “Don’t go. Don’t go.” A little woman with flaxen hair bound by
a red gypsy scarf had spotted Star’s face among the leaves. She
scurried over, poked a cup of aquamarine water into her hand, and
chirped in a tiny voice, “Drink, drink,” before flitting back to
the boisterous group.

No one noticed when Star set the cup on the
ground without drinking. But Star noticed Bach on the opposite side
of the circle, sprawled like a corpse near the shrubbery. She
stepped out from the leafy hedge and worked her way around the
clearing’s perimeter. An empty cup lay at his side and a peaceful
look graced his face. She knelt and grasped his limp hand. “Bach!”
she whispered. “I don’t believe it … you drank too much. Why did
you do this?”

A lady with pink flowers in her hair danced
by and sang, “He celebrated with us. See, he’s happy, he’s
happy.”

Star took hold of the lady’s skirt and
pulled her to a stop. “Where can I get a firefruit? Is there fruit
from a co-op trip? I need a firefruit.”

The little lady’s words were a song. “No
firefruits allowed. Bad manners. No firefruits allowed.”

“
I have to wake him. We’re
short on time.”

The lady sang on and danced around with two
others who joined in the singing. “No firefruits at
celebrations.”

Star tapped on Bach’s face, looking for a
sign of consciousness. “Bach, please wake up.”

His nose twitched.

“
Bach?” He didn’t move
again, so she tapped his face a second time.

This time, his eyes opened to slits and he
whispered through barely parted lips, “Get me out of here.”

Star stood and looked around, barely
speaking. “Don’t move. I’ll think of something. You can’t be
disrespectful.” The three dancing ladies looked on. The one with
pink flowers in her hair blew a kiss toward Bach. It gave Star an
idea. She motioned the ladies closer. “I know about the special
gifts of Gihon’s people,” she said, “and the handsome alien won’t
even need a firefruit if each of you gives him a magical kiss.
People from Earth respond to affection. The more kisses he gets,
the more powerful the treatment.”

An involuntary grunt came from Bach’s
throat.

“
See? Just the thought
makes his body react in anticipation.”