Fire Island: Book 3 of The Chatterre Trilody (Chatterre Trilogy) (3 page)

“Toward the school of angels.”

“What?” This was the information she needed to save her life?

“In front and to your right. You should be able to see them.”

All she could see was something silvery darting in the murk near the edge of her vision. With nothing to lose, she took a step in that direction, then another. After forty paces, she still didn’t know why she was trusting directions from a damaged android, which directed her toward mythical beings that supposedly went to something as mundane as a school.

But with no other viable option for survival, GEA-4's 'school of angels' was her best bet.

After what seemed like days, but was less than six hours, according to her chronograph, the rocky, sandy bottom began to sprout vegetation, which gradually got taller and thicker, the blades grasping at her legs.

Suddenly, Tem-aki tripped and fell. She threw her hands forward to break her fall, and landed hard on her knees. Exhausted, she focused on breathing and calming her hammering heart. After several minutes, feeling a bit calmer, she turned to see what had caught her boot.

Something glistened and beckoned against the sandy muck. Pushing GEA-4's arms aside and wriggling back to the thing, Tem-aki dug around it with her hand, excavating what looked like a dark twisted stick with an ornately knotted top. Very peculiar construction, but sturdy and potentially useful as a walking stick. Standing up, she took a tentative swipe at the clinging leaves. As if by magic, their grip on her boots slackened.

The stick was useful.

While it had obviously been manufactured, it could have been made thousands of miles away, so it didn't guarantee there was any land nearby.

Tem-aki sighed. “I thought you said that there was another person 11.7 meters away. Surely I've gone ten times that far.”

“Correct.”

Her hands clenched in rage. “So this person is now behind me?”

“Negative.”

“Well, they are not here.”

“Correct.”

“Well, they obviously were not 11.7 meters away on bearing 278.”

“At present, he or she is 534 meters away on bearing 322.”

“Why did you allow me to move so far off course?”

“You were not the only one in motion.”

Had she ever had such a frustrating conversation, before? “And this is the first time you thought it appropriate to mentioned this?”

GEA-4 did not respond.

Tem-aki tried to control her breathing to calm her temper. “Is it normal to get separated when going through the wormhole?”

“Cannot calculate probability due to limited data.”

“Excuse me?”

“I have only passed through the vortex in question four times. The previous times were stable, which would suggest eighty-percent probability of arriving in the cave atop the peak of Sacred Mountain. We are not there.”

Great, first the infernal machine advised her to follow a school of spirits, now it was telling her that she'd hiked deep into an asteroid and should have come out on top of a mountain.

And she'd been dumb enough to follow the advice.

Tem-aki turned her attention to the area around her. Since she'd been still, the silt in the water around her had begun settling and she realized she was sitting in a strange grassy plain, which had a multitude of odd silvery things darting amidst the leaves. Even more interesting, when she looked up, she thought she could see sunlight glistening on the top of the water. “Are we still under 43 meters of water?”

“Negative. 5.93 meters.”

“Did the wormhole return us to Kalamar?”

“Impossible to determine.”

“Well, what can you determine?”

GEA-4 remained quiet.

If the wormhole had somehow returned them to Kalamar, then no matter how many miles she walked, it was doubtful if she could find the planet's spec of dry land before she ran out of air. Tem-aki looked at the strange waving grass and the odd swimming creatures. Having grown up on Guerreterre, where water was sold by the drop, she had always thought that in nature, it was a scarce commodity, then she'd seen the water-world, Kalamar. Now, she was somewhere unknown and surrounded by the stuff. Tem-aki decided that it was most likely that the Star Bridge had malfunctioned and returned her to Kalamar.

Being surrounded by water made it seem common, but it was also impossible to breathe water, so she had to find a way out.

“Is there any land nearby?”

“Probabilities indicate that the other humanoid is on land.”

“And that would be 534 meters away on bearing 322?”

“Correct.”

Tem-aki considered leaving the infernal droid behind, then changed her mind and readjusted her burden. “If I do not find another person or land in 534 meters, I am dumping you. Understand?” Twenty paces later, she stood in front of a dark, vertical wall, which seemed to keep climbing higher, even when it soared above the water. “Any suggestion on how I'm expected to get over this?”

“Swim.”

The droid was insane to think that anyone on Guerreterre, which had no natural water, knew how to swim, much less could do so carrying a malfunctioning droid. “Other than that?”

“There is a tunnel to your left, but my scanners are not adequate to determine if it would get you to your objective.”

“And that is?” Tem-aki asked, to see what GEA-4 would say.

“The humanoid signal, which has not moved for the past three minutes.”

“And is on land?”

“At an elevation above water-level.”

Vowing this was the droid's last chance, Tem-aki moved along the sheer, high wall to her left, then found the promised tunnel, which wasn't as big as the old salt mine had been, but fortunately was large enough to stand inside.

Squaring her shoulders, Tem-aki stepped into the unknown.

~0~

Cameron O’ryan knelt in front of the fire pit, which was in the ancient lava tube at the heart of what his faction called their Protected Place. He hummed the song of creating, as he carefully placed dried bits of moss in a cone shape, then added shreds of kindling. As the pyramid grew, he added larger sticks until it resembled the volcano at Fire Island's heart. Finally, he began intoning the proper incantation.

As the first rays of dawn shone through the cracked rock into the area, Cameron lit the fire.

The flame coughed and sputtered before it took hold.

As the strengthening light caressed the designs which had been carved into the walls of the ancient lava tube, he sprinkled sage on the blaze as an offering of respect to the creators.

When the flames reached high enough to meet the rays of morning light coming through the entrance to the Protected Place, he altered the ritual incantation. Now, instead of habitual praises, he murmured petitions for his tribe's health and safety as well as specific pleas for individuals who had been desperate enough to pay for his intervention. Cameron tried to sound sincere in his requests, even when the farmers' pleas for good rains for the crops clashed with petitions for good weather during the Tribe's spring-time equinox festival.

Cameron hoped the creators were wise enough to sort out what was important and ignore frivolous requests.

When the morning rays glinted off the rising smoke, he dropped to his knees, and offered the petitions close friends and family had entrusted to him.

~0~

Tem-aki cautiously walked into the black tunnel, using the twisted stick to verify the solidity of the ground prior to taking each step. After several paces, the gritty sandy bottom began to thin and there was an occasional slick spot, which slowed her even more. Thankfully, after an hour of snail-slow going, the passage began to get lighter. Unfortunately, the water also began to look foggy, so even though it was lighter, it wasn't really easier to see. She vaguely recalled hearing about water's foggy layer phenomena. Unfortunately, she hadn't paid enough attention to something that she doubted she would ever encounter, so couldn’t recall if it was supposed to be a good sign or bad.

What was good was that despite getting slicker and harder to walk on, the passage was moving upward at a steady pace, which meant she was probably getting close to air, and the sooner she got to that, the better.

She took a break to analyze the chemical properties of the cave, which remained consistent with the readings she had taken before entering it. Tem-aki took that as a good omen.

When she looked upward, an odd, flickering light seemed to flash off a layer of water. She reached up to touch it, and circular ripples of light fled from her flight glove. She blinked in surprise.

With no other option, she refocused her attention on walking up the slick incline without falling on her face. Twenty paces later, her helmet began to break through the water. With her objective in sight, her pace quickened, so every step brought her another inch out of the water and toward the strange, flickering light.

Every footstep also made her burden heavier.

Worse, every step closer to the strange shoreline made it easier to see that someone had carved long rectangular depressions into the stone walls, above the high water mark and placed odd groups of rounded and long whitish things in them. Between the condensation inside her helmet and the gloom, it was difficult to get a good look at the jumbled items, but many of them looked suspiciously like bones.

And the closer she got, the more convinced she was that she was approaching some sort of burial ground. Tem-aki gulped, then asked GEA-4, “Where is the human, now?”

“One-hundred feet directly ahead.”

Tem-aki frowned at the blazing fire, which was where the android said the human should be. Still, a living person must have built the fire, right? “Are they alive?”

“Affirmative.”

“Near death?”

“I am unable to determine that.”

Tem-aki sighed and wished she had had time to repair GEA-4's fried circuits.

Moving to the side of the black tunnel, she used her tricorder to analyze the material; the properties were nearly identical to the ones she had gotten before entering the tube. She blinked perspiration out of her eyes and wondered if the temperature was actually hotter or if it was just her imagination.

Hotter?

The fire was not large enough to account for the increasing temperature.

She bit her lip. Her tricorder indicated the presence of carbonization, on a large scale, that usually meant the rock was volcanic. Add heat to that fact and this probably was not a good place to be. Being under water with limited air was bad enough. Being under water that might have a volcanic explosion was a nightmare.

She had to get out of this place.

Backward was not an option and forward had no guarantees, but it was her best choice.

Fighting her fear of entrapment, she moved toward the higher heat readings as quickly as she could, without falling.

By the time she was halfway out of the water, and the water no longer moderated her burden, GEA-4's weight was unbearable. Tem-aki wished she had taken the time to repair GEA-4's ability to walk, because despite the fact that the android was over a foot shorter and much thinner, GEA-4 outweighed her.

Unable to keep moving once her boots were past the tide line, Tem-aki sank to her knees and unhooked the harness. “Is this air breathable?”

“Yes. It is very similar to the air at the market.”

Though that sounded confusing, it also sounded promising. Tem-aki took off her helmet and cautiously sniffed the air. Ew, rotten fish. Fortunately, there was also the scent of wood smoke and something oddly herbal.

Unfortunately, without the haze from the condensation, she confirmed that the white things were in fact humanoid skeletons. She didn't know what to think about expending all her energy to get to a cemetery, but assured herself that the good news was that if there were dead humanoids laid out in hand-hewn crevices, others should still be alive and hopefully they could help her find Thunder and Raine, or maybe just direct her straight to Larwin.

Chapter 4

Cameron knelt on a rough, woven reed mat in front of the fire and tried to focus on the proper tones and phrases for petitioning the creators, but odd sounds, from deep within the tunnels' black unknown depths kept distracting him. At first he thought he heard splashes, so he moved to the side, so he could see around the fire, but he still could not see into the darkness.

So, he knelt on his mat, again and spent several minutes listening, but the only noise was from the gases in the burning wood popping and spitting. Certain that his imagination was playing with him, he began the chants, again.

As his muscles relaxed, a high-pitched voice said something garbled in the depths.

Cameron jumped up, looking for whoever had dared to enter this sacred space. In the gloom, he saw something pale near the water's edge. Squinting, he realized that Saphera was crouched near the waterline. With a sigh, he knelt and began the ritual, again.

Just as his forehead touched the reeds, he felt a rush of air and felt thuds on the ground, as Saphera ran past him, then threw herself onto the dusty ground behind him, as if she was trying to hide her five-hundred-pound bulk behind his one-hundred-eighty-pound form. Dear companion that she was, Saphera had always shown excessive caution, which was why he often joked that 'fear' was the middle of her name. In fact, many snickered and called her a 'frady cat', but this was ridiculous.

She was merely cautious.

A moment later, from the other side of the blaze, he heard what sounded like snippets of conversation. At least it sounded like two voices uttering consonants and vowels, but there had not been one intelligible word.

Were the creators testing him because they sensed his doubts?

Testing poor Saphera, because of her timid ways?

Squaring his shoulders, Cameron focused on his duty as mediator between the creators and the faithful and began to pray, only to hear a high-pitched voice rasp, “Yes. It is very similar to the air at the market.” Chills ran down his spine at the high, thin clarity of the voice.

Were the creators speaking to him?

Why couldn't he understand what they were saying?

Unable to focus on his devotions, Cameron sat up, and saw a brief glimpse of something azure, where Saphera had been looking prior to her latest panic attack. Azure was the most sacred color. Why would she run from that? He stared without blinking, the fire's heat making his eyes water, then, he saw the apparition again. Closer this time, and fully out of the water, it knelt in front of the bones of most ancient dracos, as if paying homage.

Heart slamming against his ribs, mouth dry, Cameron forgot to breathe as he watched the miracle.

After the deity set aside its offering to the dead, it almost looked human. Then it made some odd movements and seemed to be taking off its round, crystalline crown.

The flames leaped, blocking his view.

With a gasp, he remembered to breath and then, he cautiously moved to his right, so he could see around the fire. The vision in azure was still there, and with the round hat-thing off, it had the face of a beautiful woman. Deity, really, judging by the golden halo. But it also seemed to have a second face; at least he thought the mangled mess was a face, beneath a mess of horrid, strange dark hair.

Was it part angel? Had it emerged from the underworld because it was a demon?

As he watched, the azure figure separated into two beings, the one tall, with lovely cheekbones and divine golden-reddish curls remained the sacred color, but the smaller one, which appeared to be all shades of lights and darks was pathetically homely and probably injured, since the attractive one needed to assist it to lie down properly.

He silently watched, while the azure one laid the injured one down, then knelt beside it, holding an odd black box, which it slowly moved over the sick one's head. After punching the box a few times, the golden-haired being moved it from the sick one's head, to its torso and lower. As Cameron's gaze followed the movements, he tried to understand what was being done.

If the angel was trying to help the other one, the strange one probably wasn't a demon.

Was it?

And it was female, wasn't it?

Would an angel help a being from the underworld? He blinked at the memory that they both had come from there.

Confused by his conflicting thoughts and emotions, he studied the strange pair. As his gaze traveled over the injured one, he noticed that something long and dark was lying next to her. He squinted, trying to see the details, then swallowed hard, when he realized that it looked remarkably like the sketches of the staff of power, which Draco Shakura, his sect's founder, had used to harness the dragon-mother's power and convince Shaka-uma to lead them to this island sanctuary.

The sketch of the staff of power was in the ancient journal, right next to the entry explaining that it had been lost during a violent storm at sea, even though the sacred volcano was in sight.

It was momentous that the deity had chosen to materialize, but why did it have the staff of power?

How bad were things going to get?

~0~

As a geologist, Tem-aki Atano thought she had encountered every type of anomaly associated with geology, but discovering that someone or some unknown group had carved the walls inside a lava-tube and was using the recesses as a tomb was something she had never imagined finding. She frowned as she studied the way the bones were laid, with all heads to the North and feet to the South. Was that fact significant or had the corpses been laid that direction because the tube itself had flown molten rock that direction?

Were compass readings important, here?

Was a culture that buried bodies like this advanced enough to consider compass bearings or have a way to determine the direction, when they could not see the stars?

She shook her head and decided such random thoughts could wait. The crucial thing, for now, was to see if she could repair GEA-4 enough so that the android could walk; because, without the water to moderate the load, there was no way she could continue carrying her.

Tem-aki trained her tricorder on the android and confirmed that, despite the strange fall and submersion, there was no additional damage.

That was the good news.

Unfortunately, the bad news was still the same. Tem-aki was great at a lot of things, but electronic repair was not one of them. When she fixed the shorted out wires for GEA-4's speech circuit, she had accomplished more than she imagined possible. She chewed her lower lip. “Okay, where is the system to control your limbs?”

“The part connected to my visual, auditory and gyroscopic sensors, is in my neck. Circuitry to move arms is at the base of my skull and the main circuitry to move my legs is where you humans have a belly button.”

Rats, the android's face and belly had suffered the majority of the damage. But the back of its head didn't look too bad; at least she could tell one wire from another, instead of it looking like a half-melted slag-heap. “Um, if I can repair the damaged wiring in your neck, do you think your arms might work well enough for you to help?”

“Possibly.”

“Okay, then we have a plan.” Tem-aki began cleaning the exposed circuit board, then scanned it with her tricorder and showed GEA-4 the readings. Following the robot's directions, she carefully began repairs, but the harder she worked, the more difficult it was to see.

Glancing up, she realized that the once-bright fire had burned down to embers, but what was even more surprising was that a human and a big furry creature were sitting behind it, staring at her. “How long have you been there?”

When the silhouette didn't respond, GEA-4 said, “He was here first.”

Hmm, maybe the robot's information wasn't so suspect after all. Tem-aki sat back on her heels and studied the alien as intently as he was examining her. At least she hoped GEA-4 was correct about it being male. It was impossible for her to tell because the flowing yellow robe and ornate blue cowl camouflaged gender, height, weight, and just about everything except long dark hair, strong cheekbones and steady gaze, which seemed very male. Since GEA-4 had said 'he', Tem-aki decided to think of the stranger as male, until she found a valid reason not to.

Whoever and whatever this person was, she needed his help finding food, shelter, tools and parts to repair GEA-4. Most importantly, she needed to find Larwin, but, if the silent man's attire was any clue, he came from a very backward culture.

Tem-aki smiled at him and introduced herself. He didn't bat an eyelash or introduce himself. “GEA-4, can he speak?”

“Unknown.”

Great! Alien cultures had never been her strong suit, but she recalled that in some cultures, it was prohibited for females and males to interact unless they were either mated or part of the same family unit. “What should I do?”

“Fuse the relay.”

That was not the answer she wanted, but probably the best advice, at least for the moment. Tem-aki pulled her las-cutter from the tool pouch, which was designed into her spacesuit, calibrated it to emit a soldering beam and did her best to refasten the delicate wire to the circuit board.

~0~

Cameron watched in fascination as the golden-haired woman – at least he thought the apparition was a woman – bent over the smaller, damaged one. Was it her child? The posture of the one in the strange, turquoise outfit looked like she was trying to heal, but he didn't know how she could do that, when she was fiddling with a barely visible hair. And why was a tiny silvery hair, which appeared not bigger than an eyelash the focus of her attention? Furthermore, why was it sticking out of a cut at the base of the injured one's skull?

Surely the other injuries were much more severe than the tiny hair. With that thought, the back of his own neck began to tickle. He moved a hand to scratch it and encountered whiskers. A backward glance confirmed that Saphera was as fascinated by the two unknowns as he was.

Reaching behind, without taking his attention from the unexpected pair, he patted Saphera's neck. A soft, tentative purr came from deep within her chest. Crawling forward, she leaned against his side and together they watched the odd pair.

Once, when it looked like the taller one was having difficulty trying to move the smaller one, Cameron considered offering his assistance.

But he realized that if she/they wanted his help, they have would asked, so he stayed on his mat, without seeing anything more earth-shattering than the pair emerging from the underworld.

Then, as the sun climbed high in the sky and the embers began to die, the smaller one suddenly sat up and clasped the taller one's face between her damaged hands. Saphera shivered so hard, as she leaned against his side, that Cameron nearly fell over.

The pair remained motionless for so long that he began to worry that he should do something. But what? Chant? Without being sure if they were sent by the sky creators or from the underworld demons, he couldn't decide what they were doing here.

How could he know what to pray or which chant would be appropriate, when he couldn't even decide if they were friend or foe?

His entire body began to feel stiff and cold, but he stayed still, watching.

Abruptly, the small one let go of the other's face, then with a swift, fluid movement stood upright, raised her hand in friendship and said, "Greetings."

Assuming it was her word for salutation; Cameron bowed with the respect due an injured child and responded in kind.

Unexpectedly, the taller one stood, then bowed deeply to him. She pointed to her chest. "I am Captain Tem-aki Atano," then she pointed to the small one, "and this is GEA-4." She gestured to the shorter one. "I am looking for my brother, Colonel Larwin Atano, can you direct me to him?"

Cameron blinked in confusion and looked from the possible demon to the possible angel, wondering what to do and what had been said, after what was obviously an introduction.

Saphera nudged him.

Belatedly, he remembered his manners and introduced himself and Saphera, then, deciding it was wise to give them the benefit of the doubt, with a great deal of pantomiming, he invited them to his frigate to share a meal.

When he was halfway back to his dory, it occurred to him that ones who healed by fiddling with nearly invisible hairs at the skull might not survive on the same things he did. But, by then, it was too late to back out on his offer, so Cameron continued forward.

Captaintemakiatano lagged behind when their path went by an octagonal-shaped rock, which his faction believed to be the birthing pod for a young dragon. He paused and watched her move the black box over it, as she had over the smaller one. Was she checking the dragon's health?

Had she come because a dragon was ready to return to their needy island?

If so, that would explain why she had brought the staff of power.

Hope bloomed in his soul.