Bacary ached to move faster toward the Emdannen spaceport. He looked back at Pinnawa, waddling along, trying to keep up with him. He wanted to say something to spur him along, but he knew Pinn couldn’t help being slower than an Earther. The Sevadan’s hard shell and short legs made his walk more of a shuffle, and running was entirely out of the question.
Bacary looked for the fourth time at his Emdannen-style timepiece, a thin flat sheet stuck to the back of his hand. It had two bars that gave an approximate idea of time of day, reflecting this world’s laid-back perspective and lacking the precision of hands on an Earth clock.
They weren’t just heading out for a pleasure trip; he and Pinnawa had collaborated on a project which might just get him back in touch with Bacary’s people back on Verge. If their organic test pod could survive an extended time in space, they might be able to get past the uncooperative Sevadan government to reach the Earth colony. The plan was to take the normal shuttle to the Star Rider station close by the Emdannen sun and onto the passenger module, while his Emdannen friend Moovik brought the test pod out in a freighter to launch it separately. Both would then be transported instantly to the planet Shren, courtesy of the mysterious Star Riders, and later to Achaylah.
“I’m coming,” Pinnawa said, puffing as he caught up with Bacary at the entrance. “We won’t miss the shuttle, will we?”
“No, but I was hoping to get here before the line gets long.” Pressing through the entrance, his shoulders slumped at the sight of the long line of passengers at the security checkpoint. A full module, for sure. Maybe even two.
As they approached the passenger queue, their luggage trailing behind on robotic platforms, a pair of short meerkat-like Emdannen dashed around them and into line. Bacary scowled, but didn’t say anything at the rudeness. After the adventure rescuing his brother Matt, he’d been lauded as a hero on this world. Such attention often embarrassed him, although it came in handy at times. But lately it appeared the Emdannen taste for off-worlders had grown sour.
After a few minutes, he was startled by a telepresence robot, a small box with four wheels and a tall stalk supporting a video display with a cinnamon-furred Emdannen face on it. Emdannens frequently used such devices, as most of them preferred to stay close to home. The tele-bot chittered at them for a few seconds, irritating Bacary. He carried a telepathic Tharsh plant in his bag, which translated alien languages, but it was useless in this situation since it only worked for aliens physically present. He started to push past the annoying tele-bot, but then its display shifted to English text: “Dr. Swift and Pinnawa: This is Spaceport Director Chittak. Please follow me. We have arranged a private room to process you and get you to the shuttle quickly.”
Bacary’s eyes lifted. “It looks like somebody still has some manners,” he said to Pinnawa. “And they’ve even done their research to write a message in my native language. Come on, we’re getting the VIP treatment.”
“What’s that?” Pinnawa asked.
“Very Important Person.”
“We are important?”
“I should think so,” Bacary explained as they followed the tele-bot. “I’m one of only five Earthers in the whole Nodal Community, and you’re one of only two Sevadans. If nothing else, at least we’re unusual.”
The tele-bot ushered them into a side room. Bacary had expected to see a few Emdannen security clerks, or possibly their tele-bots, but his spine stiffened when he saw that the only people in the room were two black-furred Throngans. They resembled Earth pumas, if pumas walked upright and sported a third set of limbs coming out of their mid-sections. Their fearsome appearance was enough to startle him, but the memories of his torture at the paws of Throngans filled his body with dread.
“What, um…” he said, turning partway toward the now-closing doors.
“You will come with us,” one of the Throngans said in a flat monotone. The other Throngan raised a mid-limb with a device that looked like a gun.
“W… wait a min—“ he started, but the Throngan ignored him and fired the weapon at Pinnawa. Bacary watched open-mouthed as Pinnawa fell backwards. His head, arms and legs retracted into his dark green shell, forming a smooth round shape like a flattened egg, wobbling on the floor. Bacary’s head swiveled back to the Throngan just as something hot hit his chest and a sizzling sound filled his ears before everything went dark.
***
Moovik gazed over the freighter’s control panel at the purple-and-yellow craft floating motionless in front of vast blackness. At least he believed it was a spacecraft; some people theorized the craft were the Star Riders themselves. No one really knew, as the mysterious aliens kept themselves completely aloof, revealing nothing of their purposes or methods. But they were kind enough to allow Emdannens and the other peoples of the Nodal Community’s nine worlds to travel instantly with them from star to star. Some people compared travelers to stowaways, others to benign parasites. The one rule: no technology. The Star Riders only allowed organic material to join them. No ships, no spacesuits, no weapons. Whether that was meant to protect the worlds from each other, or the Star Riders from the worlds, no one knew.
He went back to the cargo section to check on the test pod, a mottled green sphere the same size as the normal wooden structures used for passenger modules. Unlike those modules, the test pod was airtight. All organic, molded from a shell compound Pinnawa had developed.
The test was intended to simulate sending the pod through the Sevadan system, where no one would collect the arriving pod and later send it on its way to the next system. The Sevadans had declined the offer to join the Nodal Community and in fact intended to maroon the NC delegation on a mining planet. They made it quite clear they wanted nothing to do with anyone traveling via the Star Riders.
Before attempting to send it to Sevado, this trial run would first send the pod to Shren, where it would remain untouched for thirteen days. Then the next Star Rider cycle would take it to the next world, Achaylah.
To avoid the Star Rider rejecting the pod, it would need something inside that wasn’t just organic, but actually alive. Hence the single passenger: a banna-flech, an Emdannen rodent which seemed to cope well with zero gravity. The pod had enough air and food to last the little banna-flech thirteen days until the next Star Rider cycle. Bacary had originally planned to use a lizard, but later realized if the Sevadans decided to intercept the pod, they might consider the use of a reptile as an affront. And nobody wanted to offend them again.
A tone sounded from his control panel, and Moovik returned to the front. He spotted a small tug-ship moving toward the Star Rider, pushing a plastic-wrapped wooden passenger module in front of it. He tapped the comms panel. “Greetings, shuttle. This is Moovik D’Lammo on Freighter Valley Slopes, standing by for the experiment. Can you relay me to Dr. Swift?”
An Emdannen face appeared on his panel’s display. “Valley Slopes, this is the freighter Cloudburst.” He looked a little confused, his furry face twitching. “Dr. Swift is not aboard.”
Now it was Moovik’s turn to be confused. “Are you sure? Is Pinnawa there?”
The other pilot shook his head. “Neither of them. We have no Earthers or Sevadans. Just the typical travelers to Shren. I was told to expect them, but they never showed.”
Moovik’s eye rings wrinkled and he rubbed his tiny hands together. This didn’t make any sense to him. They’d done their final checks together on the ground before loading the test pod into the freighter. Then Bacary and Pinnawa were going to travel along to Shren in the usual passenger module to observe the pod’s behavior during the wait and ensure the successful arrival at Achaylah. They wouldn’t have missed it.
“Did they send any message?” he asked the shuttle pilot.
“No, nothing.”
Moovik grunted softly. It made no sense.
***
Bacary groggily blinked his eyes open. He shook his head to clear the fog. Where am I? He tried to stand up, but discovered his arms and legs were bound to a chair with plastic straps. He twisted his neck to see the chair was tethered to a metal pole. He also saw Pinnawa behind him, still fully withdrawn in his shell. Pinn didn’t have a chair, but was secured directly to the pole with many plastic straps.
He looked around the brightly lit room. There were low tables along the windowless walls, covered in glassware and other chemistry equipment. As he looked closer, he realized some of it was the same as in their lab at Del Veranno. But this wasn’t their lab.
“Hello? Is anyone here?” he shouted, but with no response. “Well, that’s great.” He looked back over his shoulder at Pinnawa. “Pinn! Wake up! Can you hear me?” He wiggled his body, attempting to nudge his comatose friend. No response.
How did we get here? he asked himself in frustration. I remember we were going through the spaceport and getting in line for the shuttle. No, wait, somebody took us out of that line. One of those bots. Then we went into some other room. Aw, crap, Throngans! The memory of their attackers hitting them with tasers came back to him and he felt his stomach constrict. Are they ever gonna leave me alone?
He heard clicking noises from behind him and twisted his neck again to see Pinnawa’s head peeking up from his shell. “Pinn? Are you OK? It’s Bacary. I’m here, too.” He scanned the room again, relieved to see a Tharsh translator plant sitting in one corner.
Pinnawa didn’t respond, but Bacary could see his head fully extended from his shell. Suddenly, the Sevadan’s whole body shook violently, struggling against the bonds to get his limbs extended as well.
“Calm down, Pinn.” Bacary recognized the irony, while he was on the edge of panic as well. “You’re not gonna break these things.”
The shaking subsided, and Pinnawa spoke. “What happened, Bac? Where are we?”
“I’m not sure. It seems to be a lab.”
“Why are we bound?”
“I think someone abducted us.”
“Why would they do that? Is that permitted on Emdann?”
Bacary smiled despite himself. “No, it’s not permitted.” The government on Pinnawa’s homeworld was autocratic and had conditioned the citizens for generations to know nothing other than obedience to the state.
“I don’t like this, Bac.” Pinnawa’s voice was wobbly. He was just as scared as Bacary, possibly more so since the concept of crime was difficult for him to grasp. Since coming to the NC, both he and his mate Hylennia had struggled with the concept of people not following the rules.
“No, I don’t like it either.”
“Have you seen anyone?”
Bacary shook his head even though Pinnawa was facing away from him on the other side of the pole. The Sevadan couldn’t twist his neck around like Bacary could. “No, I woke up a minute or two before you. I haven’t seen anyone.”
“This equipment. Some of it looks just like ours.”
“Yeah. It’s a lot of the same stuff.” Although a lot neater. “I’m guessing they want us to keep working on your shell-generation tech.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Pinnawa said, puzzled. “We were already working on it. We were doing just fine in our own lab. Why would they want us to be in a different lab?”
“Evidently, they want us working for them.”
“I don’t understand.”
“They want your tech.” Bacary had learned to be patient with Pinnawa over the past six weeks working together. In many ways, the Sevadan was very naïve. He displayed an absolute trust in authority, and was frequently puzzled when he observed people making their own decisions. And anyone not following instructions or rules gave him distress.
“They should have just asked,” Pinnawa said. “We would have told them whatever they wanted to know.”
“I agree,” Bacary replied. “But I’m guessing they wanted it all for themselves.”
“Not to share the knowledge? But that violates the Fourth Precept of Science. Do they not follow the Scientific Method?”
“We’ll have to ask them when we see them.”
Bacary shivered mentally, thinking about his past run-ins with Throngans. He’d been attacked by Throngans shortly after first arriving in the NC and then endured near-constant terror on their planet. He still had nightmares of those hateful yellow eyes and sharp menacing teeth. And now they’d come after him again.
“Bac, why would they want this technology for themselves?”
“I don’t know.” Bacary shook his head. “Maybe the Throngans want to be able to make organic spacecraft for some reason.”
“Throngans?”
“Yeah, don’t you remember the guys that zapped us?”
“Oh, right. I remember that now. In the spaceport, there were two Throngans. I wondered if they knew Purlank.”
Purlank had been with Matt and Lauren when they met Pinnawa and his mate, Hylennia. Purlank had felt forced to help Borillisan, an Achaylan, trap them in a dangerous place while they tried to escape exile on the Sevadans’ mining planet. Matt, Bacary’s brother, had not quite forgiven Purlank for that, but neither did he consider her an enemy. As for Bacary, Purlank had been an ally to him during his ordeal on Throop.
Bacary smiled. “Probably not. There are a lot of Throngans around the worlds, I doubt they all know each other.”
“Purlank broke the rules, didn’t she? Is that something Throngans do regularly?”
“I suppose Throngans do tend toward disobedience and… violence.”
“Why are they tolerated?”
“What do you mean, Pinn?”
“Why do the other people allow Throngans on their worlds?”
“Well, not all of them are bad. Purlank is good and honorable. You can’t judge all of them because some of them are criminals.”
“But you said Throngans tend toward disobedience and violence. If that is their nature, the government should not allow them near you.”
Bacary didn’t have an answer for that.
“So why would the Throngans want an organic spacecraft?” Pinnawa asked.
“I don’t know, maybe they think they could sneak something past the Star Riders that way.”
“Why would they need to sneak something past the Star Riders?” Pinnawa asked.
“I suppose they might want to smuggle weapons onto a world.” Bacary considered it further. Did they think they could attack a world with them? Maybe they could avoid the need for the receiving world’s ships to pick them up. He envisioned a fleet of attacking organic spaceships, then shook the thought off as ridiculous. Pinnawa’s test pod could never be an attack ship. It barely had a propulsion system, just enough to get it away from the Star Rider’s black disk long enough to avoid being swept away. And while the shell was strong enough to maintain air pressure in the vacuum of space, any sort of weapon could easily blast it to pieces. No, if the Throngans were hoping to turn this tech into an attack fleet, there was no way it would work. “I just don’t know.”
Their speculation was interrupted by a door opening. The two Throngans entered the room, one moving to stand in front of Bacary, and one in front of Pinnawa. Neither spoke, but simply stared at their captives. Bacary was confused. Why aren’t they speaking? And their eyes looked odd. Bacary still had the occasional nightmare featuring those intense Throngan yellow eyes glaring at him, but this one didn’t have that evil stare. If anything, the eyes seemed empty and dull. Then Bacary noticed the mid-arms, dangling loosely in front. He recalled that was a sign of submission for Throngans. Were the captors now submitting to their captives?
“Uh, hello,” he tried. No response. “So, what are you guys planning to do with us?”
The Throngan in front of him was a statue, other than the fact that he was breathing. Bacary also noticed at this point that his mid-arms were small weak limbs with long dexterous fingers, characteristic of the Laborer-class of Throngans. Laborers were much less intelligent than the Supervisor-class, but due to their dexterous fingers, they were essential to build the devices the Supervisors had the brains to invent. Throngan society was based on this duality, but the Supervisors were clearly the ones in control. Even for a Laborer, though, this guy seemed extremely passive.
Bacary turned his head slightly to address Pinnawa. “These two are Laborer Throngans. That means there must be a Supervisor-type that’s in charge. I don’t think these guys are going to tell us anything.”
“So they’re waiting for their leader to arrive?” Pinnawa asked.
“I guess so.”
After a pause, Pinnawa asked, “When do you think their leader’s coming?”
Bacary closed his eyes and tried to be patient. “I… don’t know, Pinn. Why? Somewhere you need to be?”
“Well, I was just thinking about Hylennia. Do you think they’ll let us go soon? We’ll miss the flight to the Star Rider.”
“I think that ship has flown, Pinn, and we missed it.”
Pinnawa groaned: a low, pathetic rumble. “It’ll be another thirteen days before we can try again.”
Assuming they let us go before then, Bacary thought, then shook his head to dispel the pessimistic thought.
“Thirteen more days without Hylennia, “Pinnawa continued. “She’ll be disappointed when we don’t show up on Achayah.”
Oh, yeah, Bacary thought. He’d forgotten about Hylennia, Pinnawa’s mate. She was waiting on Achaylah with Bacary’s brother Matt, and Matt’s wife Lauren. It would be thirteen days before Bacary and Pinnawa would be expected to show up there after hopping through Shren. And then it struck him: Moovik would be missing them, too, but right now. He hoped Moovik would go looking for them, and somehow find them before this got worse.
End of Chapter 1
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Rick A. Allen - SciFi Author 