Pilgrim (5 page)

“Some of your injuries are severe,” Cal
said.

“Stop scanning me,” Nova said, waving her
hand. “It’s fine. You saw what they did, I’m bound to have a few
scratches.”

“I’m afraid we couldn’t get here any faster.
The engine needs an overhaul,” Cal said.

“You know I can’t afford that,” Nova
said.

“Well, we need new parts, or at least used
parts, their age is irrelevant,” Cal said.

“I know. I know. If we ever find the
colonisation ship, it might have spare parts we can use, but
finding this warp converter is more important right now than
parts.”

“Might I suggest reconnaissance before
further fieldwork?” Cal said.

“I think that would be best,” she said,
exhaling.

She pushed herself to her feet and stumbled
from the storage bay to the pilot’s chair, ignoring the pain
shooting up through her body. She plonked herself down and stared
at the wide front screen.

“Crusader, show me the camera feeds,” she
said.

The view switched and she could see the
children, including the girl in the white dress, huddled under
Crusader’s spotlight. They were still being buffeted by the massive
engines.

“Let’s get out of here. I want to be far
enough that they’re not right next to us, but close enough to keep
an eye on them.”

Crusader lifted into the air and floated
away from the village. The cowering children shrunk until they were
specks in the distance.

“I don’t suppose our cloaking engine is
working?” Nova said.

“No, we’re still missing parts after our
run-in with those Andian pirates.”

“Okay, well keep the shields up all night
and monitor the exterior for any kind of movement. I don’t think
they’ll find any way to get inside, but after what I just saw, I
don’t want to take any chances.”

“Confirmed,” Crusader said.

“Did you detect any adults?”

“Negative,” Cal said. “Only children were
detected around the village.”

“Do you know what they are?”

“All observations suggest human.”

“Humans can’t open their mouths to the size
of small planets.”

“All observations suggest human.”

“I get it,” she said, waving her hand and
wondering if it was time to adjust Cal’s personality traits.

She rose from the command chair and limped
through the ship with the cool-pack held to her face. She entered
the bathroom and lowered the bag to examine her injuries in the
mirror. It was worse than she’d expected. The left side of her face
was swollen beyond recognition and covered in green and purple
splotches.

She returned the cool-pack to her cheek and
went to her sleeping pod, opening another compartment filled with
first aid supplies. She fished out a packet of pain-killers and
retrieved the aluminium foil with her left hand. The foil slipped
free and fell to her lap, empty.

“Dammit,” Nova said.

Her head pounded, her shoulders burned, and
her side was in agony. She needed relief.

“Cal!” she said, standing up and limping to
the dining area. “Do we still have the structure for Parapem in the
food generator?”

“Food generator: Many other functions,” Cal
said.

Nova groaned. “I know it has lots of other
functions. It doesn’t mean I have to say it every time.”

“I don’t understand why you humans feel the
need to shorten everything. It causes nothing but confusion,” Cal
said.

“The Parapem, Cal,” Nova said. She stomped
to the food generator (many other functions).

“It’s automatically programmed. I thought it
would save us some time.” Cal stopped by her side.

She pressed a button on the generator and it
whirred into life. The light flashed red for three seconds and the
generator dinged. She popped open the door. In the centre of the
plate was a small blue square which looked like a section of
plastic.

She lifted the square to her mouth, placed
it on her tongue, and closed her eyes. The soothing sensation
spread out in ice-cold tendrils, licking up the sides of her
cheeks. It spread into her head, over the pounding ache, making it
fade away.

“Public domain drugs,” Nova said. “Best.
Invention. Ever.”

“You hurt my feelings,” Cal said, hovering
away.

Crusader’s voice came over the intercom.
“And mine.”

“Okay, Class four labourbots and Z400 cargo
ships are the best inventions. Closely followed by public domain
drugs,” Nova said, shaking her head and smiling at the small
robot.

“Much better,” Cal said. “Will you be
retiring now?”

“Yeah, I’m going to bed. See if you can find
any more information and we’ll make a plan tomorrow. Also, can you
apply a healer-pad to my eye once I’m down?”

She pointed at the bruised mess of her face
and her left eye which still wouldn’t open.

“Affirmative,” Cal said.

She stumbled away to her sleeping pod and
collapsed, fully dressed, with a sigh of relief. She was vaguely
aware of a cool sensation running over her face as Cal laid down a
healing pad but was asleep before he finished his
ministrations.

CHAPTER
FIVE

Nova awoke the next morning to find her left
eye could sliver open. Her relief was overpowered by aches and
pains returning as the effects of the Parapem wore off. She lifted
her body from the mattress and winced as her shoulders flexed. She
stumbled out of her sleeping pod and slumped into her pilot’s
chair.

Cal hovered around the corner. His panel
lifted and he held a metal arm out towards Nova. She held out her
palm and Cal dropped a small blue square onto it. Parapem.

“I was wrong. You are the best invention,”
Nova said, tossing the blue square onto her tongue.

“I know,” Cal said with a flurry of beeps
that sounded like a trumpet fanfare.

She waited until the Parapem seeped into her
muscles and then made her way to the food generator. She pushed in
a few numbers and three seconds later the machine dinged. Nova
reached in and pulled out a bowl of cereal.

She scooped mountains into her mouth with
each spoonful and sat back down.

“Cal, do we know what’s going on?” she
mumbled.

“What if they’re just barbarians?”

“They’re not just barbarians. Did you see
how that girl’s mouth opened? And where are the adults?”

“Aliens then?”

“Check the Cloud. I bet they’re not
mentioned anywhere.”

“I already checked, just thought I should
put all the suggestions out there,” Cal said.

“Okay, so we need more information. Do we
still have that spy-bot?”

“You smashed it last year while evading the
Confederacy.”

“Oh yeah,” Nova said, gazing into the
distance. “We’ll just have to build another one. We must have parts
lying around, right?”

“There is definitely a lot of stuff in the
storage bay,” Cal said.

Nova rolled her eyes and got to her feet.
She placed her bowl into the food generator and followed Cal to the
storage bay. She strode to the cleared work bench and opened the
draws and cupboards underneath.

There were screws and scraps of metal, tiny
wheels, and wires. The drawers were filled with all the space-junk
anyone could ever need.

She fished through the drawers, pulling out
small wheels and gears. She wrenched out a broken solar panel
piece, along with a handful of wires. In a drawer further along she
took out screw-drivers and laid them out on the bench. In the end,
there was an ordered line of parts and equipment.

“Let’s get started,” she said. “It has to be
something they won’t notice, I’m thinking insectoid, seeing as this
place is teaming with the things.”

She sat on the work-stool and bent over the
smooth metal desk, frowning as she studied the assembled pieces. A
lit magnifying glass hung over the work area and she peered through
it to attach tiny wheels one by one to axles. She ran gears from
the axles to the main motor component.

“If you wouldn’t mind?” Nova said to Cal,
holding the solar panel piece on top of the motor.

A panel in Cal’s side lifted and a small
soldering gun extended out. He went to work attaching the solar
panel onto the motor. Once that was finished, Nova attached the
motor wires.

“That’s a start,” she said.

She flicked the 'on' switch and laid the
simple design onto the bench. After a few moments, it buzzed into
life and rolled away from her hand. Nova picked it up and turned it
off again.

“Now we just need the camera feed,” she
said.

“Don’t you think it should have all-terrain
legs?” Cal said. “Wheels aren’t going to get it very far.”

“You could be right.”

She slid open the drawer at her waist and
sifted through odds and ends. There were firm metal stands with
hinges. She couldn’t remember where she’d got them, but they’d be
perfect.

With Cal’s help, she soldered the legs into
place, along with a simple camera. By the time they’d finished
there was a shiny gold spider sitting on the workbench in front of
them. Its spindly legs were reflected on the smooth metal
bench.

“Now the brain,” Nova said.

She lifted a small computer chip and
inserted it into the slot beside the motor. She flicked the 'on'
switch and sat back.

The spider spybot stayed still for a few
moments and then scuttled into action. Its legs tapped along the
metal bench like rusted scissors as it ran from Nova and Cal to the
other end of the bench. The front camera roved about the room.

“Crusader, are you receiving the video
feed?” Nova said.

“Affirmative,” the female voice
responded.

“All right, Spidey. I want you to go out
into the village and find out everything you can. Don’t get
caught.”

Nova grabbed hold of the metallic spider as
it ran past and carried it to Crusader’s sliding door. She pressed
the green button by the side and the door opened to reveal the day
beyond. The sun was already setting as Nova dropped the spider to
the grass.

Spidey hurried away from Crusader towards
the village. It disappeared into the grass. Only the occasional
flash of sunlit metal gave it away as it scurried on.

Nova pushed herself to her feet and
sauntered back to her piloting chair.

“Now we wait,” she said, staring up at
Crusader’s front screen. The video showed a low perspective of
grass and sky. The blades of grass moved to either side as the
camera pushed through. The journey which had been so short in
Crusader was far longer when travelled on tiny insectoid legs.

It took until nightfall for the final layer
of grass to part and reveal the massive tent. It took up the whole
screen and loomed high above. The moonlight cast a blue glow over
the tribal village.

Spidey moved in closer.

***

Spidey followed voices to the large wooden
building in the centre of the village. Firelight spilled out of the
doorway and lit the ground. The rest of the village was empty and
dark. Spidey crept up to the open building. In a burst of speed, it
scuttled through the opening and into a shadowed corner.

The camera zoomed in on the children
gathered in the middle of the room. There were at least twenty of
them, the youngest looking about three. They were all huddled
around something on the floor, paying no attention to each other or
their surroundings.

Spidey stepped over animal skins and torn
rugs, moving around so that the camera could see between the press
of bodies.

A corpse lay at the centre of the children.
It belonged to a deer or antelope. There wasn’t much of it left.
The children were bent over, scooping handfuls of warm meat into
their mouths. Each of their faces was stained red. Blood dripped
down their chins and stained their clothes.

They were growling. There were no words,
rather just a general noise like a pack of animals over a kill.
They vied for dominance and prime position, jostling each other.
The floor around the kill was similarly stained. The dark brown
patches further out suggested this wasn’t the first time such a
feast had occurred.

Sora was at the head of the dead creature.
The other children stayed away from her, casting furtive glances up
at her. All of the children’s hands were stained as red as their
mouths and their eyes shone as they slurped pieces of raw flesh
from the carcass. They were like demons possessed, chomping up
every raw morsel they could from the beast.

The spybot moved in closer.

The last of the antelope was being eaten.
Only the skin and a few bones remained. The girl in the white dress
rested back on her haunches. She held a section of vertebrae in her
hand and pulled the last meat off with her teeth. When every last
speck of flesh was gone, she tossed the bones to clatter on the
floor.

At her signal, the rest of the children
stopped eating and also pulled away from the corpse. Some of their
eyes lingered on the few specks of blood, but they didn’t reach
out.

“As the bringer of this meat, Riak will keep
the skull,” the girl said in a deep and reverberating voice.

“But the sorcerer is still out there. Surely
I need protection more than Riak?” a young girl of about seven
said, looking up with wide eyes.

“No! We do not change our ways just because
of the old one. Riak made the kill, he will keep the skull.”

“But—” the girl began.

“I said no! If you say one more word, I will
kill you and use your head for protection.”

The rest of the children fell silent and
stared at the ground.

“Good. Soon we will all go to the great
beyond and be lifted up by the mighty Rock. Think on that.”

The children nodded and stood up. Spidey
scuttled deeper into the shadows to watch. They shuffled in single
file away from the carcass and towards the open doorway. A young
boy bent down and ripped the antelope’s head off. He carried the
trophy out of the building.