“Same. Need meds and food. And don’t worry. I set a timer for ten minutes. We’re heading back to the EV at that point, whatever happens up ahead.”
They reached the clearing a few moments later, and their location was instantly apparent. To the right, above the tops of tall, thin lichen trees, a clear view of Threck City’s soaring tower alit with multicolored torches. Skinny had led them along a gradually curving path around the city’s outer perimeter. Ahead lay the “Soccer Field”—another Tom designation. Several times a year, the Threck held sporting competitions in this place. Running, leaping, throwing, block stacking, feats of strength. It was like Threck Olympics.
So why had they circled round to the other side of the city?
“Wait, do you realize where we are?” Qin said, and Skinny threw up an arm.
LIVETRANS: Silence!
AETHER: Yes, though I’m not sure why. She said this was to briefly meet up with Eeahso and accept gratitude.
QIN: How would an injured Eeahso have even made it all the way over here ahead of us? There’s no way. I say we bail. We need to get those meds in you.
AETHER: And you. Seven more minutes on the clock. Like I said, we go either way.
QIN: You’re the boss.
Skinny reached the other side of the field first and, once more hidden by foliage, stood up and helped Aether and Qin to their feet. She stepped back and gestured.
LIVETRANS: Just here. Little farther.
Five more minutes were spent climbing to a rocky hill’s crest before edging a quarter of the way down to the other side, stopping on a small, natural balcony. Skinny crept to the edge, peered over the precipice, and then signaled for them to silently take up positions beside her. Frustrated, and with only a minute left on the timer, Aether slinked to the edge as she searched Livetrans for a way to specify a sign-only response. Qin crawled up beside her and peeked out over the ledge.
With no sign of Eeahso, or anyone else for that matter, Aether decided to stick to her guns and call it quits. She lowered her PA volume to a whisper and leaned the speaker close to Skinny.
“Eeahso not here. It is time. We are leaving.”
Skinny put up an arm—a sign that no longer required translation.
“Wait.”
“No, we will wait no longer, Skinny. We are leaving.” She reached behind her and tapped Qin on the back before shuffling backward.
“Aether!” Qin whispered. “Look! Is that Tom?”
Aether scrambled back to the edge and peeked out. Below them, beyond the rocky hill’s base and past perhaps 50m of wild vegetation, Aether saw a perfectly circular clearing surrounded by tiki-type torches and tall, planted epsequoias, like an arboreal Stonehenge. To the right of the clearing, a paved trail curved off toward the city. But closer, at the end of a separate, unlit path, Aether spotted an apparent observation post.
“Angela too!” Qin hushed. “The Threck have them!”
Indeed, the observation post—about half the distance between the tree circle and Aether’s position—contained several individuals, Tom and Angela among them. Among her friends stood three cloaked Threck, and all eyes appeared to be on the circle, including Tom’s and Angela’s.
Skinny tapped Aether’s arm and signed.
LIVETRANS: Any second.
“What’s any second?” Aether replied through the hushed PA. “What’s going to happen?”
Skinny edged close, placing one of her siphons right up to the visor opening in Aether’s helmet. Strange, sour air jetted out as Skinny whispered, “Like I say before. You see difference of Seekapock and Threck.”
Aether gazed down at Tom and Angela as she realized her alarm had been flashing in front of her all this time. She dismissed it, tension rising in her neck and forehead. Her stomach gurgled and reminded her that its rage had yet to be quelled.
“Look, there!” Qin breathed.
Aether shifted focus back to the circle of trees and saw a very young Threck slowly entering the lit area from the path. A second later, another Threck child appeared, then a third. Aether watched nervously as all three children went to the center of the ring, each picking up an object from the middle, then separated, spreading out toward the edges. The epsequoias obscured most of their view, but Aether caught fleeting glimpses whenever they crossed the space between trunks. After walking the full perimeter, the three reassembled at the edge of the clearing, opposite the entrance path, and lay down, stretching their appendages out like four-pointed stars. Tentacles overlapping each other’s, the children went still.
A small commotion in the observation post. The Threck around Tom and Angela grew excited, pointing toward the tree ring.
Beside Aether’s head, Skinny had begun absentmindedly tapping one club against the rock and, upon closer observation, the cilia were in an uproar, dancing wildly like a thousand arms above a concert crowd.
“What are those?” Qin whispered.
Aether glanced back to the children. “What?”
“Are you zoomed? If not, do.”
Aether closed her bio eye and zoomed right up to the three young Threck. It took a moment, but she spotted them. Slithering out from the bushes beyond the trees: three little worms, hardly visible in the mossy ground cover, like tiny snakes in high grass. Each moved on a direct course toward a Threck child.
Within a minute, the worms reached the children and disappeared beneath them, presumably to their mouths. And then nothing happened. The young did not appear to react. Not even a slight tentacle movement.
Aether heard Skinny’s breath speeding up. She looked over at Skinny’s eyes. They appeared focused not on the ring, but beyond it and to the left, and they were widening, creeping almost imperceptibly forward.
Skinny uttered a single, muted syllable: “Soot.”
LIVETRANS: Now.
And then all hell broke loose.
2.6
Having taken her meds and eaten, Angela seemed to be in a bit better mood. One might even surmise that she was excited about visiting Threck City. After her fury dissipated, Tom enjoyed witnessing her engineer side taking over as they jounced about in a wagon on the main road.
Threck wagons were designed unlike any cart or vehicle in human history, and while the team had detailed schematics and imagery of the peculiar inventions, to see them up close—to travel upon one—was no less thrilling for her. The Threck had examples of wheels in various mechanisms (pulleys and such), and yet they relied upon heavy cement spheres for all sorts of on (and off) the ground load bearing and shifting. City gates, carts, and the massive water-wheels around the city all used these large balls. The wagons had a sphere on all four sides and rolled on the front and rear balls for normal forward travel, and the two side balls for side-to-side motion. It was highly impractical considering that without domesticated beasts of burden, propulsion was achieved via teams of Threck, and at any given time, 200 kilos of extra weight must be hauled above and beyond the cargo.
During an obligatory exigency meeting, the team had discussed what sorts of technology advancements the team might offer the Threck in exchange for accommodating the foreigners on their island. Limited medicinal advancements met with mixed reactions, but the wheel had been agreed upon unanimously.
“Isn’t it funny,” Angela smiled, motioning to the weary Threck driving the cart forward, “how once-theoretical negotiations about technology sharing now have a real-life bearing on our own personal comfort?”