James Scotson - Planets Falling

We follow him in a single line into the trees. Blinding light sears my eyes. The roar of crashing waves nearly knocks me off Phineus. I’ve never been to the ocean and the sensation is glorious. All the pain and worry well up from some kernel deep inside me and I sob uncontrollably. Out of the bright light and salty air appear two impossibly handsome people — a man and a woman dressed in strange, green clothes. They help me off of Phineus and the man touches my bare shoulder with a strange metallic object. I drift into a delicious sleep.

“Hello, Amy. You made it.” Dream Fromer’s sitting in the sand next to me. His boots are off and I see his strangely human feet, toes wiggling. My emotions are now completely unimpaired. “Fromer, I demand that you tell me where you took Wenn and father. And how do I get Eliza back?”

“Foremost, about your little girl, I’m sorry that she’s in the hands of Thresh. You and Eliza will be reunited in time. That’s all I can tell you for now. As for Wenn and your father, I was responsible for their departure before the fall of your village. If they’d stayed, they both would have died. They are far away on the other side of the mountains, but safe for now.”

“I hate you. You’ve destroyed my life and dragged all these poor people in with me.”

“Amy, do you really hate me? You’re looking for an outlet for your anger. Thresh and her allies are to blame for this. I’m here to help the best I can. Let me try to explain what’s going on. Please walk with me.”

I walk effortlessly in this dreamscape, marveling at my surroundings. The waves wash on the beach, white foam curling in emerald pitch. We turn away from the water and there she is, the Fuerst. It stretches into the distance, its black surface gleaming in the moonlight. It looks a little like the shiny carts we saw in Troll’s compound, with a large window in the front and thin wings extending along its sides. Along its belly are large cylinders arranged in neat, concise rows. A pipe with stair steps hangs underneath the ship’s right wing.

Fromer puts his thick hand on my dream shoulder. “What do you think of Etch’s vessel? Etch and I have long been friends. I used to command the crew of this ship when I was young. It’s difficult to explain how this ship travels through space. But it can allow us to travel between here and almost any of those stars.”

“The moon as well?” I ask.

“Of course we could.” He smiles sadly. “Although we might not want to go there right now.”

“Why’d the lights go out — on the moon?”

“A war has broken out in space, including the moon. The people living there have abandoned the surface, for now. I’m afraid the fighting will spread to here soon.”

“What’s the fighting over?”

“What are all wars fought over? Resources, power, access. There are two factions, who you will unfortunately meet in time. One government, now called the Institute, has been in power for more than a thousand years and was responsible for the exile of your people on earth. The other is a group of folks called the FRT that want to bring down the Institute and impose their own rule on space. The FRT has long been my nemesis.” He growls. “The only thing protecting earth and your people from both of them is fear of a contagion that may have winked out a thousand years ago.”

“Troll told us that some bad people, terrorists, released something that destroyed most of the machines.”

“Yes, Amy. The circumstances are murky at best. Some people released a horrible substance on earth that did not kill other people. Rather, it killed the technology on which they depended — a clever ploy that was far more damaging than any could ever imagine. Maybe the terrorists wanted earth to return to a simpler condition. Whatever their motive, the weapon consumed communications and power networks on the planet. It worked like the infection in your leg, spreading quickly. The rest of the humans and other creatures, including my species, in space decided it would be much too dangerous to allow anything from the surface back into space. So, the entire planet and its survivors, including your ancestors, were quarantined indefinitely.”

“Does this infection remain?”

“That’s a good question. It hasn’t affected this ship or the various gadgets that Etch and his companions have been using, thankfully. They wouldn’t last a week without their technology.” He laughs. “Troll scanned you and your friends when you descended into its compound. The only reason Troll allowed you in was because you were not contaminated. I’d guess the weapon, whatever it is, still exists dormant on the planet. But where and to what extent — that’s an unanswered question.”

“Why do people want to come back here to earth?”

“Some of the reasons are mundane — recolonization, development, and exploitation of the planet’s considerable resources. However, there are a few people out there that have discovered a miracle here on the surface. Would you like to climb into the Fuerst to see more?”

“Sure, but what has it to do with the miracle?”

“Let’s see.” He leads me up the steps into the ship. It’s dimly lit and cramped. Padded, black benches line the walls. We walk forward through a small doorway into a large room with a single seat. The beach and waves are visible through the window in the front. “How does this room make you feel, Amy?”

“Strangely familiar. Comfortable.” The room allows me to feel a connection with many other beings like me, far beyond this world. We’re all looking at the stars, but from behind them. It is an odd sensation that’s impossible to understand. Yet, it seems natural to me.

“Amy, you’re among a very rare group of beings in the universe. We call them pilots. Etch is one. With the proper training, pilots are able to navigate these ships through the unimaginable emptiness of space. Unfortunately, Thresh is also among your kind. This room is a pilot house. It works to magnify your ability and to navigate the ship.”

He jumps in the seat. “The technology the pilots use takes advantage of your ability to see things that most of us can’t see or experience. Some call it telepathy. It’s really just a way of perceiving the energy that’s created by life. Thinking and feeling are just other forms of energy and you can harness them. I don’t expect you to understand all of this, although with time, you will.”

I’m confused. “So, what does this have to do with the miracle here on earth?”

“Across the mountains is a place where the heat contained inside the earth bubbles up toward the surface. It acts like a magnifying glass for tiny organisms that live there. They naturally do what this ship does — provide a way to travel long distances by opening a hole in the universe. In it, you can see all of creation and travel among the planets, stars, and perhaps other places as well. But there’s a catch. Someone with a natural connection to the earth and the innate skills of a pilot needs to be there to control access to the portal or doorway that they create.”

“So, Mister Fromer, you’re telling me that I’m that person?”

“You or Thresh. There may be others, but I don’t know who they are. If Thresh reaches the portal and learns how to control it, this wouldn’t bode well for earth or for the worlds beyond it.”

I think of Flip. He’d never have been able to handle the job. Now Fromer, the god or alien, has dumped the responsibility of protecting earth and other worlds on my shoulders. The responsibility of tending the garden overwhelmed me. I hope the infection in my leg kills me so that I don’t have to face this anymore. And I wonder what this means for Eliza. Will she have to inherit the burden from me someday?