Noah Zarc: Mammoth Trouble (Noah Zarc, #1) (7 page)

“Planet?”

“Um... A great big land in the sky.” I gestured around us. “This land, this
planet,
we call Earth. I was born on another planet, called Mars.”

“So, Mars is your home?” She looked up at the sky as if she might suddenly see another world.

“Well, not really. I’ve lived most of my life on a great ship in the sky.”

“A ship? Like the silver thing you killed the mastodon with?”

The firelight danced on her face. I’d never seen eyes that big.

I glanced back at the sky. “Yes, but much, much bigger.” How to describe something so alien to her? “It’s like a giant cave, with a whole lot of rooms. But it’s not a part of the land, it moves.”

Adina looked at me like I was a little off my rocker. Then someone shouted from across the fire.

“A tale!”

Several people took up the chant. “A tale! A tale!”

Adina nudged me in the arm.

“It’s tradition for the hunter who brought down the beast to tell a tale—you know, his adventures and daring.”

I panicked. “My daring?”

She giggled. “The story doesn’t have to be true.”

I looked at Dad, who nodded. My stomach twisted in knots. Then I saw the expectant smile on Adina’s face and the faces of dozens of people sitting around me, and raised my chair higher. I was the hero of the day, after all.

“I’ll tell you the story of Elimu and Fathiya.”

Dad smiled big. I could do this.

“The elephant is a mighty creature, as you all know.”

But they all looked puzzled.

“Sorry, elephants are just like mastodons without the fur—tough gray skin, huge ears and tusks. They’re not easy for a man to catch, and it’s especially hard for a boy on his first hunt.” So many nodded that my confidence grew.

“About two years ago, I was helping my dad track two of these elephants in the African…in a land far from here, where the sun always shines and you don’t need to wear furs to keep warm.” Some of the women looked at each other, then back at me.

“Dad and I were watching a herd of elephants grazing near a watering hole. I spotted a pair off by themselves, a male and a female, perfect for us. We had one of our ships ready with fences on each side of an entrance so we could herd the elephants in.”

An old man to my right laughed. “Wouldn’t it be easier to spear these
elephants
and take their meat into your
ship
?”

“Yeah, I guess it would be, but we didn’t want their meat. We wanted them alive.”

A kind of collective gasp rose from the crowd.

“Dad put me in charge of closing the doors to the ship once the elephants were inside. He went off to circle around the far side to scare them in my direction. I sat for what seemed like a long time until suddenly the elephants spooked and started moving towards me. I saw my father walking behind them, herding them toward the ship.”

I looked at all the faces, shining in the firelight. I wasn’t sure they understood the story completely, but they hung on every word.

“The two elephants were within three meters when I heard a loud popping sound!” I clapped my hands, and a few of the younger kids gasped. “The animals turned and started running off to the side, away from me. Dad yelled, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying. A loud noise came from the far side of the watering hole, and I looked up to see a Range Rover barreling towards us.” More puzzled faces.

“A Range Rover is kind of like our ship, but it moves along on the ground instead of in the sky.”

“Another tribe had come to steal your
elephants
?” the same old man said.

“Poachers,” I said. “Men who kill animals and take their pride, leaving the meat to rot in the sun.” Many heads were shaking—with outrage or disbelief.

“Finally I could hear my dad telling me to get in the ship and prepare for takeoff. We had the refractor cloak—um, we had the ship well hidden, so the poachers didn’t know it was there. I dashed in and fired up the engines. As soon as Dad made it to the ship, we took off and climbed about fifteen meters into the air. From above, I saw the poachers chasing the elephants. They were shooting at them, with their… fire spears.

“I told Dad to stay in the hold and leave the doors to the ship open. We raced ahead of the elephants. They were running through the brush, knocking over everything in their path. I had to time it just right. I remember Dad yelling he wasn’t sure this was such a good idea.”

Some of the men in the crowd smiled or chuckled. Parents, no doubt.

“I told him to trust me. The male elephant was running down a beaten trail, the female following. He was the one the poachers wanted most—he had enormous pride.” Adina grinned at me.

“I saw an area not too far ahead of him that should do the trick. I knew I’d only have one chance. Just before the elephants reached a clearing, I dropped the ship to the ground in front of them, the door of the hold open. I heard a loud crash and the ship shook something fierce, but then Dad said, ‘We got them! Get us out of here.’ I hit the thrusters and lifted the ship into the air. The poachers screeched to a halt in the cloud of dust.” I laughed. “One minute they were chasing elephants and the next both of them were gone.

“So that’s how we got our two elephants. Sam, my sister, named them Elimu and Fathiya. They haven’t had any babies yet, but we think it’s just a matter of time.”

The people clapped and cheered when I lowered my chair to the cave floor. Even better was Adina’s smile and the look on her face.

“That was a good tale,” Adina said. “I’m not sure how much of it I believe—”

“It’s true, every word of it.” Then I laughed. “Well, almost every word.”

Sam’s voice sounded over the comm-link.

“We’re finished with the
Morning Star
repairs. We can go after Mom as soon as the gel foam is hardened.”

“Good,” Dad said. “Get inside and lock up for the night. I don’t think it’ll be safe for Noah and me to come home tonight, so we’ll stay here. Tomorrow morning we’ll come get you.”

“Sounds good,” Sam said. “Save some mammoth-burgers for us.”

Dad had a dry spot near the back of the cave where he’d been sleeping the past week or so. Adina brought us another pile of warm furs and showed me where a stack of wood was stored to keep the nearest fire stoked.

“She’s a sweet girl,” Dad said once she’d gone to bed.

I felt my cheeks burning. I was probably too close to the fire.

Dad laid out the furs for me. I pulled myself from my chair, snuggled into them, and lay there for a while staring into the fire. The cave quieted down as everyone settled in for the night. Off in the distance a wolf howled, but I felt safe in the back of the cave.

Was Mom safe? I’d been enjoying myself tonight—telling silly stories while she was being held captive by that…what did Sam call him? That madman.

“Do you think Mom will be okay?”

“She’s much better at taking care of herself than I am,” Dad said. “I’m sure she’s fine.”

“Do you really think the repairs on the
Morning Star
will hold up?”

Dad turned onto his elbow and looked at me. “Of course. Why?”

For a while, I was silent.

“I just always seem to mess everything up. If I hadn’t crashed the
Morning Star
, we probably would have rescued her already.”

“And all these people would be sleeping on empty stomachs,” he said. “I don’t think you realize what a gift you’ve given them. When you’re hungry you can just go down and have Le Chef fix you anything you want, but these people struggle to survive. Look around—there are only a handful of people here older than me. It’s a very hard life you made a little easier. And we’re still going to get your mom.”

I watched as the fire flickered across his face. Although I teased him about being ancient, I knew forty wasn’t really that old. There were people on Mars who lived far, far longer than that. But he was right. At first glance the people in the cave all looked old—weathered and beaten—but up close I could see they were almost all younger than Mom and Dad.

I suddenly felt lucky. I had two parents who cared for me—Adina didn’t have anyone. Maybe I could do a little more to help her have a better life.

I woke shivering several times that night when the fire died down. My nose felt like an ice cube. The wood was piled near my head, and each time I woke up I stoked the fire back to life and drifted back to sleep.

The next morning I woke to mastodon sizzling on the fire. It smelled delicious, but I wondered how long I’d be able eat the same thing three times a day.

Then I laughed. “PB&J three times a day keeps the doctor away.”

After breakfast I went looking for Adina and was told she was out gathering firewood. I found her along the trail back to the ship.

“Come on, I want to show you something,” I said.

Adina laid down her bundle of sticks and followed me.

“Did you sleep well last night?” she said.

I shivered, even though I was dressed in my warmest coat with my hood zipped up around my face.

“It was pretty cold, but I did all right.”

She giggled. “At least you came in the summer. Come winter, when the wind howls through the canyon, it’s all we can do to keep the fires burning. I’ve woken up in the middle of the night buried in snow as deep as I am tall. But if you don’t think about it, you can get back to sleep and dig yourself out in the morning.”

I stared at her, but she didn’t look like she was kidding. A few minutes later we reached the clearing.

Adina gasped. “Where’s your ship?”

I moved forward, hand extended.

“Here, feel this.”

Adina held up her hand next to mine, and brushed against the hard surface of the
Morning Star
. She recoiled.

“Your ship?”

“Yeah, don’t worry. It’s just hidden.” I lowered my arm. “You don’t want to touch them when they decloak—it’d give you a bit of a shock.”

Adina stepped back even further.

“
Morning Star
, decloak.”

The trees shimmered. In moments, we stood before the external hatch of the ship.

Adina gasped. “Where did it come from?”

“The ship was here all the time. We just have a way to hide her so no one knows she’s there.”

“This would sure make it easy to hunt.” Adina tentatively reached a hand out and touched the hull of the
Morning Star
. “As long as we were upwind, our prey would never know we were there.”

“Come on,” I said. “I want to show you inside.”

Adina backed up again. “Is it safe?”

I laughed. “Of course it’s safe. You’re in the presence of one of the greatest pilots on planet Earth.”

She looked at me as though I’d grown an inch.

“So there are more of these
pilots
all over the land?”

“Right now, just me and my dad.”

She kept looking at me for a couple of seconds, then broke into laughter and socked me in the arm.

“At least you’re in the top two.”

I moved to the hatch and said, “Open please.” The door whooshed upward, and I walked in.

“Can anyone enter your ship? Couldn’t another tribe steal her from you?”

“The
Morning Star
is keyed to our family.” I reached in my coat pocket. “If we wanted to let someone else in we’d give them one of these.”

I held out my hand. In my glove was a small blue ball.

“It has a magnetic signature the ship will recognize. I always carry one when I leave because I don’t trust the ship to recognize me. What if something happened to me and I didn’t look the same?”

Adina peered inside the ship. Very cautiously.

“It’s so
dark
, Noah.”

I slipped the orb back in my pocket.

“Sorry, lights please.” The interior of the ship lit up with a cool blue light.

“You have the sun inside your ship!” She let out the breath she’d obviously been holding. “And it shines on your command.”

I pointed to a long glowing tube. “Nah, it’s just a light bulb. It has something like fire inside that makes it glow.”

I opened the secondary airlock door, and Adina followed. A small, circular stair led up to the cockpit. When we entered, the instrument panels came to life with flashing lights and screens.

“Sit down.” I pointed to the pilot’s seat. “This is where I drive.”

Adina sat in the chair, her back stiff.

“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” she said. “What if I break something?”

“You won’t—it’s coded to only recognize commands from someone in our family.”

I turned toward the windows, which had dark shields over them.

“Blast shields up.” The steel covers over the windows opened to reveal the morning sun. “We don’t really need these open to fly, but it sure makes the view a lot better.” I pressed a few buttons and saw the status of the ship.
Cabin unfit for pressurization. Flight not recommended.

“I wish I could take you up in her. There’s nothing greater than rocketing over the ground at mach two.”

“That’s fast?”

“Really, really,
really
fast,” I said, grinning. “She can actually go much faster than that, but then you can’t make out anything below you—it goes by in a blur.”

She looked out the window for a while, then turned to face me.

“Could the ship take me…” She stopped and looked back out the window.

“Take you where?”

“It’s silly.” She didn’t look at me. “When I was little, they used to say my mother and father had crossed a great ocean to a land where it’s always warm, where they would be happy and never again worry about food or cold.”

A small tear rolled down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away.

“I never understood why they would go there without me.”

I tried to think of something to say. I didn’t have a whole lot of experience with losing anyone I’d loved. My pet white mouse who died when I was little didn’t really count.

“I can’t take you to your mom and dad,” I said. “But maybe somewhere warm.”

“If the ship worked that is,” I mumbled.

We sat in silence for a while.

“Do you want to meet my brother and sister?”

Her face brightened. “That would be great.”

I activated my wrist-comm. “Hamilton, Sam, where are you?”

“Better be an emergency, Noah.” Sam’s voice sounded like she’d still been sleeping.

“Sorry, I wanted to introduce you to Adina. We’ve been up for hours.”

“I’m in the galley,” Hamilton said.

Adina and I headed that way.

“How about some hot cocoa?” I said.

“What is it?”

“Trust me, you’ll love it.”

Hamilton was finishing breakfast when we came in.

“Hamilton, this is Adina.”

He pulled his Triple-B out of his pocket and placed it in his ear.

“Hello, Adina. Welcome aboard the
Morning Star
.”

“I’m not sure I believe something like this exists, even though I’m standing here.”

She took off her bulky furs and laid them on a chair. “The elders tell stories of ships that float on the water, but never have I heard of one that flies through the air.”

I went to get cocoa while Hamilton offered Adina a seat.

“You surprise us as well,” Hamilton said. “All the books say you should be far less advanced than you are.” He sat back down and sipped his orange juice.

“Books?” She frowned. “These are your wise men?”

“Not our wise men but words written down by them.”

She nodded but still looked confused.

“Don’t worry.” I set two steaming cups on the table. “My brother has a habit of talking about things in a way no one else understands.” I slid a mug in her direction. “Be careful, it’s hot. Hope you like marshmallows.”

She reached out, touched the mug, and sniffed the chocolate. Slowly she took a sip. She swallowed. Her face split with a huge grin.

“I like, I like.”

I laughed and took a drink of mine. “If you blow on it, you can drink it quicker.”

Within minutes Adina’s face was covered in sticky chocolate and marshmallow.

“I can’t believe this tastes so good! Even the water of our cave doesn’t have this much flavor.”

Sam walked in. “What tastes so good?” She already had her Triple-B in her ear.

Adina looked up, saw Sam, and gasped.

“Sam, this is Adina,” I said. “Adina, Sam.”

“Nice to meet you.” Sam smiled at her but looked at me and raised her eyebrows. Adina sat and stared, her mouth open.

“Did you eat?” Sam said.

“We did,” I said.

Sam walked over to the food prep center.

“I’ve never seen anyone so beautiful,” Adina whispered.

I looked at my sister and nearly choked. “Sam?”

She stood at the counter, ordering breakfast from Le Chef. Her long hair was pulled up in a ponytail. She wore a jumper and stained shirt.

“I’m not sure the translator’s working quite right.” Hamilton snickered.

Sam came back to the table, her plate full of pancakes with syrup all over them.

“What’s wrong with the translators?

“Nothing,” I said.

“Just a misinterpretation of a word,” Hamilton said.

“Oh well, you can talk to Dad about it.” Sam looked at Adina. “So my brother didn’t kill you with the ship yesterday, huh?”

Adina looked at me and grinned.

“Oh, no. He’s one of the best pilots on planet Earth.”

Sam laughed. “In his mind, he’s the best pilot in the solar system.” She reached in her pocket, pulled out a small silver box with a screen and buttons on one side, and placed it on the table.

“Ham, I found the ECL, it was right where it was supposed to be in the ship’s workshop.”

“The ECL?” I picked it up and turned it over in my hands.

“Electronic Chip Locator,” Sam said. “You use it to find relay chips. If it locates a faulty chip, it emits a magnetic pulse to disable the circuitry.”

Hamilton plucked the locator out of my hands.

“The right ailerons are malfunctioning,” he said. “I think there’s a short in the system.”

Sam sighed. “Once we get that fixed we should be able to get out of here tomorrow—no offense, Adina, but I’m freezing.”

Adina set her empty mug on the table. “Right now I think I’m the warmest I’ve ever been in my whole life.”

After we finished our cocoa, I showed Adina the rest of the ship. Even the simplest things amazed her—running water in the sink, doors that open and close automatically, things I took for granted every day. As I watched her take it all in I kept wishing there was some way to help my new friend live a better life.

The last room I showed her was the small sleeping quarters.

“We don’t usually go on long trips on the
Morning Star
, but if any of us ever needs to lie down, this is where we do it.” I tugged on a strap dangling from a bunk. “Of course we need to strap ourselves in, otherwise we’d float around the room.”

Adina’s eyes grew wide. “Float?”

I thought for a minute. “In space, you don’t stick to the ground, you float above it. Kind of like my chair.”

She scrunched up her eyebrows. “So how do you walk?”

“You don’t. You fly.”

Adina just shook her head. “I think I would stay strapped in the bed.”

I laughed. “Maybe, at first. But trust me, there’s nothing better than floating in space.”