Socket 1-3 - The Socket Greeny Saga (64 page)

Someone slapped my shoulder. “That first
trip’s a bitch, ain’t it?” The others chimed in with laughter.

The man in the middle was the commanding
officer. His name was Samuel. He handed me a bottle of water to
rinse out my mouth.

“Spit it on the floor,” he said, when I
looked around with a mouthful. Evidently not their first time
greeting a first-timer
.

I was expecting the inside of the Outpost to
look industrial. Where the ship had landed, that was exactly what
it was: all gray walls and concrete floor. The translucent ceiling
of the dome was far above, letting pale light through.

The other two guys with the commanding
officer introduced themselves as Pepper and Fadden. They showed me
the rest of the Outpost. It was a small city, complete with streets
lined with elms and maples and houses and warehouses. Mosquitoes
buzzed and squirrels chirped. They farmed crops, raised animals
while they researched the planet outside the dome.

We walked for hours and never reached the
perimeter of the dome. We stopped at the central cafeteria, a
gathering place for the settlers. They ate. I didn’t.

We sat around for a good hour. People
dropped into the conversation until there was a couple dozen. They
asked the questions, mostly about life back home. Most of the
residents were on extended stay in the Outpost, some had been there
half their life. Some even born there. While most of them said they
didn’t miss it, they were still curious. No one forgets home.

My celebrity status among Paladins was
missing a planet millions of miles away. Some had heard of me – the
Paladin that defeated the duplicates,
The One Who Sees
Clearly
, as the grimmets once named me – but it hardly seemed
to matter. That was another planet. This was the Outpost.

The sun was a gray disk as seen through the
dome when I was escorted outside Samuel’s office, a set of steel
doors tightly closed. A few minutes later, they slid open. I
ascended a short flight of stairs to an enormous room at the edge
of the dome. A large desk was alone in the middle of the empty
floor, and beyond that was a panoramic view of the vast plain.

Samuel was at the desk, looking busy and
more officer-like than he did when he was laughing at my pukefest.
Military tension set my body rigid, waiting to approach. This was
the president of the Grimmet Outpost.

“Have a look,” he finally said. “I’ll be
done in a moment.”

I relaxed and let my gaze wander. My
footsteps echoed in the silence, but the outside world was a dry,
whirling windstorm. Dust-devils dropped to the ground, picking up
debris and sending it airborne before disappearing as quickly as
they formed. There were ancient, leafless trees sparely populating
the flat, baked ground, like the ones I saw in my office, and red
mountains in the distance. I went up to the dome, put my fingers on
the surface. It was warm.

There were no signs of life. A beaten
planet. Only a clear barrier that separated life on the inside from
death on the outside.

“Quite a view, isn’t it?” Samuel stepped
next to me.

I nodded, but not convincingly. Captivating,
yes. But I failed to see the beauty in a lifeless landscape.

“This is where the grimmets live?” I asked.
He nodded. “Up in the mountains?”

“Mostly, yes. They occasionally visit the
plains and flock to the Outpost out of curiosity, but we don’t see
them much. Mostly when we venture out.”

The planet didn’t look diverse, but it was
rich in elements valuable to Earth. Why else be here? The Outpost
was just one of many settlements on the planet. Mines were set up
all over. They weren’t here just to live on another planet. There
was profit involved.

“This planet wasn’t always dead,” Samuel
said, gazing out. “There is some water and the atmosphere can
support life, but when we discovered it there was none to be found.
There is evidence that beings once lived here, the remnants of
houses and roads, cities and farming. Signs of advanced
civilization. One can only imagine what it looked like when it was
still vital.”

He was looking at a plume of smoke in the
distant mountains.

“I’m sure you’re well aware of our mining
industry, but our primary objective for being here is research.
This is an expensive operation and the mining of energy-rich
minerals helps fund our exploration. Those trees you see are some
of our first successes. Instead of leaves, the bark is
photosynthetic, tolerating the harsh conditions. This is one of the
first links in planet-building. Our goal is that one day this
planet will be habitable, once again. That many generations from
now, the human population can call it a home.”

“I don’t understand. How could the entire
planet be void of life if the atmosphere is habitable? I mean,
asteroids or pestilence or war couldn’t wipe out
all
life.”

“We’re not sure.” He was still curiously
eyeing the mountains. The cloud was dispersing, growing larger and
nearer. It didn’t appear to be smoke. “All our research indicates
that life just vanished. As if a heart just stopped beating. What
could do something like that is, currently, beyond our
understanding. And that’s another reason we’re here.” He flicked a
glance toward me before resuming his watch on the cloud. “If it can
happen here, can it happen on Earth?”

I wondered if he was holding back
information. We knew so much, how could there be so much mystery
about a dead planet?

“What made the grimmets immune?” I
asked.

“Tenacious beings. Unlike anything in the
universe. They’re similar to cold-blooded organisms, going extended
periods of time without food. They seem to have some ability to
photosynthesize as well as utilize minerals and nutrients from
soil, rocks and trees. Somehow, they resisted whatever wiped
everything else out. Of course, I don’t need to tell you about
their psychic ability.”

All right, so he was aware of my connection
with them. Of course he would know I shared a special bond with
grimmets back on Earth.

“But even as tough as they are, their
populations are dwindling. We tried to incorporate them into our
environment,” Samuel said, “inside the Outpost, but it just didn’t
work. They weren’t acclimated to the friendly climate and didn’t
care to be separated from the flock.”

He stared to the distant plume, let his
thoughts drift for a moment.

“One day,” he said, “this planet will be
revitalized. The grimmets will reclaim its wonder. And, hopefully,
we’ll be able to share that with them.”

Long ago, I accused the Paladin Nation of
kidnapping grimmets, bringing them back to Earth for selfish
reasons, convinced they intended to make a weapon of them or simply
display them like zoo animals. Even when the grimmets defeated the
duplicates, I assumed that to be a fluke. But now it seemed like an
act of compassion, an attempt to preserve their kind until their
home was saved.

Perhaps my trip was not just for the
wormhole, but to see some of the truly humane aspects of the
Paladin Nation.

Samuel dismissed me to return to my escorts
with a firm handshake and a warm smile. “You’re welcome to return
any time you wish. Trust me, the wormhole ride gets easier.”

I thanked him and left, but not before
noticing that he was still watching the growing cloud. I could feel
a slight tug in my gut, like something familiar was coming.

My goodbyes were short. Everyone waved in
passing, but life resumed in the Outpost. We walked through the
large docking doors into the hangar, the gray room that housed the
black wormhole ship where it was cold and sterile.

“In case you’re wondering, the trip back is
even worse,” Pepper said, patting my shoulder. Fadden laughed,
mentioned the room still smelled like puke.

I knew what he meant. Now that I knew what
to expect, my thoughts were making the anticipation of the trip
worse. Even so, there was a pleasant sensation tugging inside my
belly and it was getting stronger. I was sure someone would be
waiting for me at the ship. Someone I knew.

My backpack was sitting on the floor in
front of the doorway glowing on the ship. It was a little fuller
than when I arrived, filled with items from the Outpost to take
back.

“Come back if you’re bored.” Pepper extended
his hand as the sky seemed to dim. “You don’t get a waiting party
on your next visit so you’ll have to clean up your own barf.”

“Thanks,” I said, shaking his hand. “You’re
an excellent host,” I said, sarcastically.

“What can I say? By the way, you know when
you get back everyone will be about two weeks older. Time’s going a
little faster for them.”

I sensed a bit of sadness. Did he leave
anyone behind? No one was immune to homesickness.

“Well, I better get back before they forget
me,” I said.

Fadden slapped Pepper with the back of his
hand. He was looking up, mouth open. The top of the dome was a
couple hundred yards above us. Dark lumps could be seen squirming
on the opaque surface.

Fadden and Pepper shaded their eyes like
that could somehow clarify what they were seeing, but it was just
getting darker as more things dropped out of the sky, scratching
and clawing along the surface. The dome was too thick and far away
to hear anything, but the commotion was frenzied.

“Yeah?” Pepper touched his ear, listening to
a nojakk call. “Seriously? No, no. We see it over here, too.”

“Check this out.” Fadden was squatting on
his haunches in front of a thin silver sheet spread out on the
floor projecting a three-dimensional image.

It was an aerial image of the Outpost from
far up. Thousands of brightly colored things were crawling over it.
Grimmets.
And more were coming. Floating lights kicked on. I
looked up at the thick layer of grimmets obscuring every bit of
sunlight.

Pepper and Fadden looked at me. They’d never
seen anything like it. No one had. Every grimmet within range of
the Outpost was coming.
They can feel me.
And I could feel
them tugging at my insides, connecting with their energy, their
unlimited essence, bonding to me like the grimmets back on
Earth.

Strangely, though, I felt they were
connecting with something else, like I carried something inside me,
something dense. Maybe they came because of that.

What’s inside me?

The ship welcomed me with its impatient hum.
I could see through its invisible walls, once again. Pepper and
Fadden waited far away from the ship. They didn’t bother waving.
Didn’t seem concerned about the white-blue light that crackled
behind me, illuminating their faces. They’d seen the wormhole open
inside the Outpost too many times to be amazed. I stayed still, not
wanting to see it swallow me. Braced for impact.

My teeth snapped together, just missed
clipping my tongue. I was pulled into oblivion, once again, with my
mind focused on home, guiding the ship back to the warm life that
waited with familiar surroundings and loving friends and
family.

The black nothingness of the moment was
peaceful. It didn’t feel like I was moving, but I sensed home was
near. My destination began to pull me back into existence, like my
body had been evaporated and was being reconstructed inside Earth’s
atmosphere somewhere over the Preserve. I sensed oncoming pain.

I was jerked in another direction like a
fish snagged with a treble hook.

I went back into the black peaceful
oblivion, but home felt like it was far behind. But then I felt my
body again, reassembling somewhere near the planet. And then there
was the excruciating agony as my awareness squeezing back into
it.

My eyes were clenched as tightly as my jaw.
I was mostly numb, again, but felt water slosh around me.

I moved my arms in a swimming motion,
unaware if I was below water or not. My lungs burned. I opened my
eyes, the salty water stinging. Panic propelled me upward but I was
too heavy. My arms were like useless poles. I desperately kicked
and barely broke the surface, inhaling just enough air to relieve
the fire in my chest. But I sank again.

There was no chance of getting back up, but
fortunately I hit the sandy bottom. I pushed upward, this time
clearing my entire chest above the water. One deep gulp of air and
I let myself sink again. I pushed off at an angle but found the
water getting deeper, so I turned around, jumping again and
again.

Finally, I stood on my toes and gulped air.
My heart was slamming. I took feeble steps and slowly walked into
shallower water.

A sandy beach was ahead. The full moon was
bright in a clear night sky. I missed my landing. But I had no idea
by how much.

L E G E N D

Silent forest

Something flushed out of my body, like a
plug had been pulled and drained molten metal weighing in my veins.
I was light as driftwood. The water around me turned cloudy. I
rubbed my eyes and looked again. The milky cloud drifted deeper and
spread out like an oil slick.

When I reached dry sand, I dropped to my
knees. Exhausted. I was catching my breath, the air cool and humid.
Seawater dripped off my nose, over my lips. It tasted odd. It was
salty, but there was something else, something familiar. Something
that usually wasn’t associated with ocean water, but I couldn’t
place it.

There was no sign of civilization. Just
endless water, sand and tropical trees. This was bad. It could’ve
been worse. The north pole. Or the sun.

I tapped my cheek, got no response from my
nojakk. Not even a tick, tick, tick. I dug through my backpack,
activated a handheld phone but it was non-responsive, too. The same
with a homing beacon. Everything, dead.