Chapter 11
Miran
“I don’t see any wounds or injuries. I don’t understand why he isn’t waking up.”
“Do you think it’s stima?”
“No! It can’t be. Miran couldn’t have fallen into a depression coma.”
“But he’s not waking up, what else could it be?”
“If the Kaklans showed up to steal the human, then they might have a weapon we haven’t seen yet.”
The loud and familiar voices made Miran fight out of his unnatural sleep.
“He’s opening his eyes!” Lazil said.
“Miran? Was it Kaklans?”
“I…I don’t know,” he croaked. Both men helped him sit up. He was on the floor next to the table. “What happened?”
“We were hoping you could tell us,” Lazil said. “We got here, but you wouldn’t answer our pings to your data bracelet or when we started chiming the door. We had to have one of the staff open the door for us, and we found you passed out.”
Miran looked around the room. His gear was still there, but the last of Nova’s clothes were gone.
His brain felt foggy. It reminded him of the time he had to visit the mender to have a procedure done.
Waking up from that was like this, fuzzy brain and unable to remember anything that happened right before going to sleep.
“Help me up,” he demanded.
Nerin was quick to grab his arm to pull him to his feet. Once standing, he staggered into the bathing room. Grabbing the rain head, he leaned his upper body over the bathtub and soaked his head in freezing water. The shock to his system helped clear his head.
Shutting off the water, he stood up and violently shook off the water.
“Better?” Nerin asked. “They have medical personnel here. Do you want to see one?”
“No,” he said. A bad feeling was building in his chest. He was sure of one thing. “I wasn’t attacked.”
“Mystery solved,” Lazil called from the main room. He and Nerin walked back in to find Lazil holding an open bottle. “Did you drink this?”
The bottle looked vaguely familiar. “Maybe?”
There were empty containers of food on the table and another open bottle. It looked like he and Nova had shared a meal.
“This is a sleep aid,” Lazil explained. The label wasn’t in Space Standard so Miran couldn’t read it, but Lazil pointed to the tiny universal symbols at the very bottom of the label that indicated it was a medicated drink.
“She drugged me,” Miran whispered. Their conversation over dinner came back to him in bits and pieces.
She’d wanted to run away and wanted him to come with her.
He’d said no so she’d run without him.
“She drugged me,” he repeated, hurt and understanding filling his chest
“You drugged yourself,” Lazil said with a laugh.
Nerin wasn’t amused. “Any of us could’ve accidentally drank that. What kind of species put medicated drinks in with regular beverages?”
“Nova,” Miran said, rubbing his hands over his face. “She was the one who brought the drinks to the table.”
Nerin frowned. “No, that can’t be right. It must’ve been an accident.”
Miran let out a laugh with no humor in it. “She’s very knowledgeable about many species. She must’ve known what it was. The last thing I remember was that she was trying to talk me into forming a two-person act and traveling around to perform.”
“Whether she did it on purpose or by accident, the result is the same,” Lazil said.
“We need to find her. At least we know she’s still on the planet. There’s no traffic going out yet. The shuttles and ships are all buried in sand. When we landed, they were still digging them out.”
It couldn't be more clear to Miran that his teammates didn’t believe Nova was guilty. He couldn’t blame them. If he hadn’t experienced her clever and quick mind firsthand, he’d believe the same thing.
“She wouldn’t go back to the Delight,” Miran said, working through where Nova might go and how she’d do it. Grabbing the old data pad provided by the hotel, he went through all the things recently looked up.
Tossing the data pad on the bed, he went to his gear and started pulling everything on. “I think I know where she is.”
Lazil picked up the pad and tapped through it. “These are only roller schedules and employment notices. There’s no pattern. They don’t even match a destination. And why did she look up these laws? None of it makes any sense.”
“There’s a very clear pattern,” he argued, straightening up from securing his boots. “We need to find the nearest roller ticket area, then you’ll see.”
***
Nova
Nova sighed with relief when the roller finally stopped. She was exhausted, and her ankle was bothering her a little. She was ready to find a place to rest.
The biggest issue was that rollers weren’t designed for human bodies.
There was no place to sit, only brace bars that Fielden stood between so they could press their shoulders against padded areas and stay secure in one spot.
The bars were too high for her to use so she had to find handholds and spread her legs to brace against the jerky, up and down movements of the roller.
She wasn’t always successful and ended up on her knees once. After that, she hadn’t been able to relax, even when the roller technician assured her that the track was flat and that he’d warn her when it got bad again.
“Are you sure you want to exit here?” the roller technician asked when she moved to exit. “There isn’t much here, and no jobs available."
The worm-shaped vehicle didn’t have traditional doors like a shuttle.
Instead, there was a hatch in the floor of the front segment.
Most Fielden could easily grab the bar around the hatch and pull themselves up or lower themselves down.
She’d had to jump up, grab hold, and wiggle her way inside.
It was a good thing she was physically fit, or she might not have been able to get herself loaded!
Looking through the hatch to the track and sand below made her wince. Jumping down was going to hurt.
“This is exactly where I want to be,” she said, throwing her overfull pack to the sand below and then the med box Miran bought. Finally, she dropped the shelter pack she’d bought at the roller station while waiting for her roller to arrive.
“The next roller won’t come around until tonight,” he told her. “Return roller trips are free. You don’t have to worry about the fee.”
“Thank you for telling me,” she said, even though she already knew the roller schedule and the payment rules.
It was sweet that this technician was concerned.
She could understand why. This area could be dangerous for other Fielden, let alone an outsider who might not be familiar with the hidden risks.
“You should probably stay within the circle's borders," he suggested.
“I will,” Nova lied. Small towns like this one were called circles because they were built in a round shape on reinforced ground. It was the only way to keep the buildings from sinking into the sand over time.
Crouching down next to the hatch, Nova lowered herself through until she was dangling. Bracing herself, she dropped and tried to take most of the impact on her good ankle. She still ended up stumbling a little but was able to regain her balance quickly.
Gathering her bags, she rushed out from under the roller. Once she was clear of the rails, she turned to watch the roller move away. This was it. There was no going back now.
By the time she faced the circle, several Fielden had left their homes and were watching her. This was a small circle with only several hundred residents. Her presence was probably the most interesting thing to happen in months.
Leaving her things next to the roller rail, she walked the narrow solid path to the circle. She spoke to the first adult she saw and ignored all the ones peeking around corners or out of windows.
“Greetings, could I speak to the Circle’s Center?” she asked. The elected leader of a circle was called the Circle’s Center.
“I’ll get the Circle’s Center,” a child further inside the circle said and hurried away.
“What are you?” the Fielden facing her asked in a male voice pattern. He wasn’t being rude, only curious. As soon as she said her species name, everyone in the circle would be looking up information about her so they didn’t accidentally insult her.
“I’m a human female,” Nova said.
Another Fielden walked up to stand next to the other one and also spoke with a male pattern. “I’m the Circle’s Center," he said. “Why are you here? We aren’t producers here, there aren’t any jobs.”
“I want to Live the Path,” she said.
She could hear some humming from the Fieldens. The pitch of this hum was their version of surprised interest.
“This is a good place for that,” the Circle’s Center said. She could hear the pride in his voice.
“That’s what I was told,” Nova said.
“I don’t know if a human has ever Lived the Path,” he said.
“Then it’s my honor to be the first,” she said.
“Wait here,” he said, but not in a rude or demanding way. He seemed more concerned than anything else. He turned and walked to a group of Fielden who’d gathered at the distinct border of the circle.
To Live the Path was when a Fielden wanted to spend a little time as their ancestors did. Before modern technology, most Fielden were nomadic and skillfully dealt with their treacherous, unpredictable, and sandy planet.
When someone decided to Live the Path, they were going to camp out in the sand with minimal gear. Because it was so dangerous, they often did it near a circle so they could seek shelter in case of a storm or sand spider migration.
They wanted to live like their ancestors, not die like them.
It was believed that by doing this, a Feilden could gain wisdom and perspective. It was common for a Fielden to do a Live the Path when they were first declared adults or dealing with a tumultuous time in their lives.
She certainly fit that second expectation!
The Circle’s Center returned. “We ask that you don’t go too far from the circle,” he said. “Do you have a marker? We can lend you one if you don’t.”
She nodded, relieved that they agreed to let her camp near their circle. This was going to be the perfect place to hide. “I’ll stay in sight of your circle, and I have a marker. If I’m in trouble, I’ll set it off.”
He asked her a few more questions and made sure she had the minimum safety gear.
As they talked, she hinted that her family didn’t want her to do this, but that she knew it would give her clarity. They were all sympathetic and promised not to mention her to anyone or record her presence until she left.
After the Circle’s Center was done, a few other Fielden wanted to talk to her. Mostly they wanted to remind her to meditate correctly and say the right words each morning and night.
Finally, the Circle’s Center told everyone to let her start, and she was able to set off into the desert. Walking in the loose sand wasn’t easy, especially with her ankle bothering her and having to carry so many burdens.
By the time she felt like she was far enough from the circle, she collapsed into the sand, catching her breath. She was sweating, despite the cool midday air. By tonight, the temperature would be close to freezing, and she’d be using every layer she packed.
After she’d rested, she got to work setting up her home for the next ten days. Digging a round ditch in the sand was her most difficult task. Once she was done, she carried the shelter back into the center of it, then set the timer. After rushing out of the pit she’d dug, she turned to watch.
The timer blinked down until the pack suddenly exploded into motion.
Thin metal triangles opened out and clicked into each other.
First it formed a flat bottom, then sides that were about as tall as her, then finally the triangles finished by forming a slightly domed roof.
The last triangle to fall into place was a hatch on the domed top near an outside edge.
She’d seen the education video of how the shelter formed, but it wasn’t anything like watching it in person.
“Neat!” she said with a little laugh. “I bet this version is way better than what they used in the past.”
With the shelter finished popping into place, she got back to work and pushed sand to fill the pit around the edges of the shelter. Soon the only visible part was the very top of the dome, and only when you were almost on top of it.
Grabbing her stuff, she dragged everything to the triangle door. Twisting it open, she dropped everything inside, then followed. The inside was well lit by the hundreds of tiny lights set into the edges of the triangles.
The seller had made sure she knew that the shelter had limited power capabilities. As long as she paid attention to the indicator near the door, she could make sure not to use more than the shelter could gather from the sun during the day.
The shelter was meant to be barely big enough for a single Fielden, which meant there was plenty of room for her. She could stand up straight, and there was plenty of floor space for her sleeping mat, a little kitchen, and a spot to create a chair with her pack.
After rolling out her sleeping mat, she stretched out. She propped her leg up on a pack and let out a little sigh of relief. She’d rest for a while, then finish setting up her temporary home. There was no rush. She had plenty of time and not much to entertain herself.
It was going to be a boring time waiting out Miran, so she might as well take a nap.