Chapter 2
- Riley -
Theodora looks up. “Back from another joyride.”
The flying saucer is coming in to land, its blue-white hull beautifully illuminated by the setting sun.
I take a sip of an alien brew that kind of tastes like chamomile tea, but has a bitter note that I’m slowly starting to like. “Maybe he found her.”
“Callie?” Theodora snorts. “I don’t think he’s even looking for her. She can’t be that far from that beach. She must be in one of the closest villages. He can see them all from up in the air. Heck, we can see some of them from here.” She points out into the jungle.
We’re on top of the big, red mountain in the Borok village. The peak is flat and has an adjacent cave, and we Earth girls call this “the penthouse.” From here, we’re high above the trees of the jungle, and we have a free line of sight in almost every direction.
And sure enough, there are little yellow pinpoints of light here and there in the jungle. Most of them are caveman villages, and some may be temporary campfires for outcasts or hunting parties.
“Maybe he thinks it’s a useless search,” I suggest. “I’m not even sure what to think anymore.”
“I’ll believe Callie’s alive and well until the day I die,” Theodora states. “Unless I get really strong evidence to the contrary. And even then, I’ll keep looking for her.”
The saucer settles softly down on the flat, red rock. It’s an eerie thing, so quiet and alien. And it’s even worse on the inside. But it flies, and it’s our only mode of transportation that doesn’t involve walking.
The hatch opens, and Dex the alien drone comes buzzing out. “The saucer is in better shape than I thought,” he screeches in his broken voice. “It can reach the stratosphere without much trouble. I wonder if the Plood know how impressive this thing is.”
“We don’t know if they built it,” Theodora says tersely. “Any sign of Callie in that stratosphere of yours?”
“In the stratosphere? No,” the drone says, bobbing slowly in the air while his rotors spin.
“No,” Theodora echoes with a dangerous flatness in her voice. “She hasn’t grown wings since we saw her last. So you’re not really looking for her?”
“Well, I have charted the likely villages that her abductor may have come from,” Dex says defensively.
“But I know we don’t want the saucer to be too noticed by other tribes, so I don’t go too close.
I will conduct the search as I see fit, and I hope you can respect that.
” He flies off with a whine from his rotors as he descends the stairs to the ground level, where most of the village is located.
“What does he do down there, anyway?” I ask.
“Mostly he spies on everyone and makes snide comments,” Morgan says. “Wearing out his welcome pretty fast among the cavemen.”
“I wonder what his deal is,” I muse. “He was super helpful in the beginning, Theodora, helping you and Karet’ox.”
“He’s not looking for Callie at all,” Theodora growls. “Someone should take that saucer and do a real search.”
“Is it easy to fly?” I ask, draining the mug of bitter liquid. “Those panels look weird to me.”
“They’re weird, but I think anyone could fly it,” Theodora says. “With some practice.”
“We could just ask Dex to show us,” Morgan says.
“But of course, if he says ‘no,’ he will also be aware that we’re thinking about it.
If he’s worried about us taking the saucer away from him, he might stop coming back here, and we’ll never see him again.
Oh, did I just have a discussion with myself? Sorry.”
“It was a good discussion,” I tell her. “But Theodora did ask him. Right?”
Theodora looks out over the jungle. “He wasn’t interested in showing me. Tried to deflect my attention.”
Cora comes up the stairs and bends over just to breathe. “Someone should. Install. An escalator. On this mountain.”
“The escalator is on order,” I tell her. “It’s just that they have to invent electricity first. Then they have to invent gears, and then moving parts, and pulleys, and all kinds of stuff. Should be here in about two hundred years.”
“Someone tell them it doesn’t need to be that complicated,” Cora says as she sits down on a wooden bench. “You really only need a caveman to carry you up the stairs. Or a team of them, so you get a new one every ten steps.”
“Nice. Too bad you could never use it. Sprisk would murder all those guys for touching you.”
“That would be a concern,” Cora agrees. “He does take the husband-wife thing very seriously. Well, then he’d have to carry me himself. Serves him right for being so possessive.”
“Still guards at the foot of the stairs?” I ask.
“They’re still there, and I don’t expect them to leave,” Cora says. “All the cavemen know that there are two new unmarried women in the tribe, and they all want to look at you two. They know that the surest way to get married is to abduct an Earth girl. And seriously, they’re not wrong.”
“I heard that cavemen from other tribes have set up a camp outside the walls,” Morgan says. “They’re willing to risk being killed for being on Borok turf just for a chance to abduct one of us.”
“There’s a lot of them, too,” Theodora says. “More arrive each day. From tribes far away.”
“Something’s going to happen,” I agree with a shudder. “The tribe seems really tense.”
“Our position isn’t strong,” Theodora agrees.
“Only Korr’ax and the other married men are keeping the Borok men from passing us around like bongs at a frat party.
They are plainly the strongest members of the tribe, but the tribe does consist of hundreds of men.
If they decide that they’re done looking without being allowed to get close to us, that could be the end. ”
“I hope that never happens,” Cora says. “But if it does, at least we have a lifeboat.” She nods towards the saucer.
“Do we?” I ask. “Dex uses it all day long. If we suddenly need it, we better hope it’s at night.”
“And that the creepy little Plood inside doesn’t suddenly come alive.”
“Nah, that doesn’t worry me,” Morgan says. “Those Plood are a servant species. Don’t you think they’ll do what you tell them? As long as they don’t have a master from before? They may actually… sorry, I keep debating myself.”
“Maybe,” I say slowly. “Unless they’re hard-wired to obey dragons only.”
The penthouse goes quiet as we all think about the dragons that the Plood served before, and likely still serve.
Chief Korr’ax and his wife, Bryar, are on a trip to the Tretter tribe, where Korr’ax is also the chief.
We can see their campfire from up here, a small pinprick of yellow light in the distance.
We all know that if the regular, wife-less members of the Borok tribe were to attack, it will happen when Korr’ax is either not here or if they murder him first.
“This is all very gloomy talk,” I state. “I’m still astonished how we’ve changed our lives from living in that saucer on the beach and barely daring to look outside to living in a tribe with all kinds of clothing, and food, and luxuries. There’s even a view!”
“It’s incredible,” Morgan agrees. “I can’t remember the last time I could actually eat until I was full. It’s a real luxury. I can stand one or two cavemen suddenly touching me if that’s the price for not starving.”
I put my hand lightly on Morgan’s arm. “That was an unpleasant moment. You handled it really well, though.”
“Me? I didn’t do anything. It was that big guard, the one with the blue stripes and the hard eyes. I think he came from a different tribe some time ago, and he was so impressive that Korr’ax let him join this one.”
“Oh, the one who looks like that Russian boxer in Rocky IV?” Cora asks. “You don’t know who I mean? Nobody watches the classics anymore. It’s a shame. Swedish actor. Big, and blond. Looks like he’s always busy planning your demise.”
I glance toward the stairs that wind down the Red Mountain. Even from up here, I can see him in my mind: the tall guard stepping in like a wall when that young caveman got too close, the calm way he grabbed the guy’s wrist like it was nothing.
Hard eyes, Morgan called them. They didn’t look hard to me—just watchful, like he was measuring everything around him and deciding how dangerous it was.
For a moment, I wonder what it would be like to have someone like that on your side all the time.
- - -
It must be well after midnight. There’s no flickering light from the common campfire down on ground level, and I haven’t heard anyone talk for a while.
I tiptoe out of the cave I’ve been given, right by the carved stone steps that lead up to the penthouse or down to the ground level.
The only thing I can hear is the jungle, a constant, low-level roar always in the background. But that doesn’t concern me now.
I know there are guards at the ground level, and sometimes they walk up the stairs to check that everything is calm. If I run into one, I’ll just pretend that I’m lost.
The carved steps are taller than comfortable for Earth girls, but the cavemen have placed wooden boxes that make each step just half as tall. I can’t use those now, because I know they creak. So I take my time and make my way up, one tall step at a time, without getting too winded.
At the top, I stop and listen. The Chief’s cave is dark and quiet, which doesn’t mean much—even if Korr’ax and Bryar aren’t there, many of the Earth girls like sleeping there if their husbands are away on a hunt or some other mission.
But I’m not too concerned about Earth girls. They would understand what I’m doing. It’s Dex the drone I don’t want to meet.
The saucer is where he landed it, eerie blue and faintly humming. The hatch is open, and if Dex is inside, I guess I’ll just have to explain to him what I’m doing and why.
I quickly walk up to the saucer and step up onto the floor. It’s a strange feeling—this saucer was my home for years when it was crashed and not working on the beach. And back then, the floor wasn’t straight and level like it is now.
The blue light doesn’t give me a homely feeling—I never liked it. Some old furs and leather sheets and such are bunched together along one wall, unused and unneeded.
All right. The married girls aren’t too interested in this, but Morgan and I are. Very much. This saucer is our only hope of maybe getting home to Earth, and I want to find out how to fly it.
At least I want to figure out the basic concepts. It doesn’t look as difficult as flying an airplane, more like driving a very simple car.
I glance at the compartment where Theodora put the proto-Plood. I don’t want to see him, so I leave it alone.
I take hold of the cold, alien material of the joystick-like thing mounted on the central console. I wish I’d played more video games that used those instead of the usual controller, but I’ll do my best anyway.
I look over the strange symbols glowing softly across the panels.
Most of them mean absolutely nothing to me.
They are little spirals, triangles, and shapes that might as well be hieroglyphs.
Still, some things feel familiar in a universal, “vehicle-like” way.
The joystick sits in the center like it expects to be used, and there’s a row of smooth, raised buttons along the edge of the console.
“Okay,” I mutter to myself, “just a quick look. No flying.” I reach out and press one of the smaller buttons.
Instantly, the blue glow brightens, and the curved walls around the cockpit flicker.
Panels that looked solid a moment ago suddenly come alive, turning transparent as viewscreens bloom across the interior.
The jungle, the red rock of the mountain, the dark jungle below—all of it appears around me in crisp detail, like I’m sitting inside a glass bubble.
“Whoa.” I lean forward, fascinated, turning the joystick slightly just to see what happens.
The saucer answers with a low, rising hum.
That seems like a good sign… or maybe not.
I quickly move my hand away and scan the console again.
One of the larger buttons pulses slowly with a pale blue light.
That has to be something simple, right? Maybe it says “start engine.” That’s exactly what I need now.
Once I get that far, I can turn everything off, sneak back out, and see if I can make more progress some other night.
Or maybe Morgan can. We really should take turns with this.
I press it.
The reaction is immediate. The whole saucer lurches sideways with a sickening wobble, as if it dangles on a thread.
I tap my chin. “Okay, that’s not ideal…”
The hum explodes into a roaring vibration, and the craft shoots straight upward like a bottle rocket. The mountain drops away so fast my stomach flips as I drop to my butt, as my knees can’t resist the upward push from the floor.
“Shit!”
The viewscreens whirl with dizzying motion as the saucer wobbles wildly, climbing higher and higher into the dark sky before suddenly leveling out. A moment later, the movement stops.
Silence.
My hands grip the console as I stare out at the endless sea of dark jungle spread beneath me, with the occasional little pinprick of a campfire. The Red Mountain is a tiny red dot now.
I swallow hard.
“Great,” I whisper to the empty saucer. “I’m a thousand feet in the air… and I have absolutely no idea how to land this thing.”