While the group eats, I explain my dream. They seem to believe me, unlike Gorian. Even Grey barely touches his food while I recount the gruesome images.
Theo’s clearly angry. “What’s that woman doing to poor Liza? Can we take this ship and kill Thresh and rescue that poor girl?”
Etch responds. “We do not understand the organic matrix — the fog — well enough to know whether we can defend the Fuerst from the beings you call grubs.”
“But, I thought you said Grey’s dad invented it?” Bets asks.
Grey swallows a bite of egg. “When he released the substance on C9, he didn’t leave us any records of it. We didn’t have enough time to get a sample before Melat took the planet with her.”
“Well, we’d better learn quickly how the fog works given that several hundred rotting dead people are lumbering toward us,” I say too loudly, my voice cracking.
Grey looks at me with concern. “Amy, would you like to see my garden while we all think about our next steps?”
I know Grey’s trying to calm me down and to keep me from agitating the others. “Yes, Grey.”
“Great Amy. I say we all reconvene here at lunch and decide what to do next. If anyone sees Gorian, please let her know what’s going on.”
“She already does,” I murmur.
Grey and I walk up a worn path into the uplands overlooking the ocean. We enter a large field full of strange plants that I’d never seen before. The soil here’s all wrong for the area. I kneel down and crumble it between my fingers. Rather than dry sand, it’s rich, loamy, and full of moisture. “How’d you do this?”
“In my previous life, before we went into hiding, I was a kind of farmer called a terraformer. My job was to cultivate planets to make them suitable for people. With the right tools, I can reconfigure the plant life to increase its productivity. That’s what I’ve done here with the crude tools on the Fuerst and with Gorian’s engineering skills.”
“Grey, I barely understand what you’re saying. But what I’m seeing before me is an abomination to earth.”
“What?”
“Cultivating is about working with the earth to make food. What you’re doing is completely trampling it to meet your selfish needs. It’s no wonder your kind was exiled from the planet. Is anything here natural, of this earth?”
Grey’s crestfallen. “Why, yes. Many of the plants here were cultivated on earth before the end of our era.” We walk over to a small stand of plants that look like maize. However, the stalks are small, slightly luminescent, and loaded with ears of purple kernels.
“Grey, is this supposed to be corn? Nothing about it is like the varieties I grow.”
“Well, we’ve engineered it using genes from several planets. A single one of these stalks provides enough raw materials to feed three of us for a week. Can you do that with your garden? Speaking of which, the corn you grow comes from a weed that was cultivated thousands of years ago and has no semblance of its original self. It’s as alien to earth as my plants.”
“What about this?” I’m carefully holding a plant that resembles a furry toad.
Grey produces a knife and splits it open. The smell of shine nearly knocks me back. “This plant produces alcohol, a key ingredient for a lot of the polymers we need to fabricate and repair our tools. Pretty cool, eh?”
“Again, Grey, I’ve no idea what you’re talking about. This plant seems to make a strong drink — something English would like. Does this come from earth?”
“Oh no. This originated on Etch’s planet, zenat. We’ve modified it to accept the different wavelengths of the earth’s sunlight. On zenat, it would be blue, not green.”
“So, you’re telling me that you’ve brought a completely alien plant — species, I think they’re called by your kind — to earth. Seems to me that this may upset the balance of things. It’s no different than the brown fog to me. Nothing good can come from it. It’ll spread and destroy earth life.”
“Oh Amy. You needn’t worry about escape. We’ve the technology to keep things under control. I think it’s wrong for you to compare us to the creatures trying to dominate earth from the portal.”
“Say what you want, but I disagree. You can learn much from me about how to harness the natural power of this world. You don’t need to use alien wares to suit your needs.”
Grey’s frustrated. “Well, we depend on it now. I’d like to see your garden someday. I’m sure you can teach me many things.”
“I doubt Thresh left any of my garden for us to visit.” The thought of home makes me sick and forlorn.
Grey gingerly puts his hand on my shoulder and I pat it. We spend the rest of the morning sauntering about Grey’s garden. I worry that I’ve been too hard on him. I do find the many plants he shows me fascinating. He knows so much about other worlds and so little about earth, the home of his ancestors. Perhaps, when all of this is over, I can teach him how to appreciate his home.
We rejoin the others at lunch. Iggy’s offspring are in the ocean grazing for food while Iggy sits at a table spraying itself with seawater. Gorian’s returned, talking with Minns and Etch animatedly. Bets sharpens her sword while Samuel sips on a glass of cider. English naps under a small tree, snoring softly.
Gorian pulls out a tablet similar to the one that Theo lifted from Troll’s compound. She hits a button and the image of another ship like the Fuerst appears in mid-air, except it is black as pitch. “I think I may know where the Raven, Melat’s ship, is. It’s right here on earth.”
She’s met by silence from all of us except English, who’s risen from his self-imposed unconsciousness. “How can that thing that smashed a planet still be around?”
Etch answers. “The Raven was not destroyed. It is difficult to explain. When it began to travel through space, it dragged the planet C9 with it. The ship survived but the planet, of course, did not. Think of our space vessels as drills that tunnel through space from one side to another. The planet tried to follow through the hole, but was too large and broke into pieces.”
Gorian’s clearly excited and seems about to burst. “I have no idea how the Raven got here on earth but it’s likely responsible for the activity we’re seeing.”
“What about Melat?” Grey asks.
“I would have sensed her presence while in the pilot house of the Fuerst. Any time a pilot is in their ship, it transmits their location to other pilots. This is an essential navigation tool, keeping us from crashing into each other.” Etch is perplexed.
Iggy’s tinny, mechanical voice asks the question we’re all pondering. “Gorian, where’s the Raven located relative us?”
“Within shuttle range in the foothills of the mountains, due east of here. We can get there in less than an hour flying at normal velocity.”
Grey strokes the back of his neck. “Whoa, we need to pause here and think about the dangers. What if Melat is still there in the ship? She can direct her weapons at the shuttle.”
“Iggy’s the best shuttle driver we know. He can evade any fire. Also, we can stay out of range of the vessel until were sure it’s safe to investigate. My sensors suggest the Raven is disabled and likely not a threat.” Gorian’s already packing her bag.
Anger wells up inside me. “Are we losing our focus here? We need to find the portal and stop it, not look for your long lost pilot friend.”
Etch pounds his fist. “She is no longer my friend. She betrayed all of us.”
“I have a hypothesis,” Gorian says. “The Raven is not completely powered down. I’m wondering whether it might be acting as an amplifier for you pilot-types out there. This may be fueling Thresh’s killing spree and allowing you to travel in your sleep. If we shut it down, then Thresh and her monsters might go away.” She smiles hopefully.