Steph Bennion - Paw-Prints of the Gods

“Whatever,” muttered Momus. “Ship, open the main airlock and cut us free.”

“Confirmed,” intoned the AI. “Please be gentle, Captain Momus.”

The console holovid screen showed the view from the rear of the spacecraft. Two-and-a-half pairs of eyes watched the airlock door open behind them, revealing the long tunnel to the outer airlock and deep space. The docking tethers released with a clunk.

“Do you want me to do this bit?” Momus asked Quirinus. “What with you having only one good eye, no bloody depth perception and all that.”

Quirinus scowled. “Don’t spoil my moment.”

He punched the control for the retro rockets. Caught off guard, Momus and Zotz lurched forward in their seats as the Platypus blasted backwards into the tunnel. Barely a minute later they were into the void and slipping smoothly away from the slot in the nose of the hollow moon. Quirinus ran his hands over the controls and in one fluid movement the ship swung upon its axis, corrected its spin and locked onto a course for the outer star system.

“That’s my girl,” he murmured and gave the console an affectionate pat.

Several hours passed. The Platypus accelerated onwards, eager to distance itself from the gravitational pull of the planets to safely leave the Barnard’s Star system. Finally, Momus received confirmation from Ascension space-traffic control that they were good to go. The extra-dimensional drive spun into life, blasted a membrane-bursting mortar at right angles to reality and in a stomach-churning, space-time-blurring blink of an eye they were suddenly a mere two hundred million kilometres from the star Tau Ceti, fifteen light years from home.

THE BLACK GRAVEL ROAD ran straight as an arrow across the bleak desert sands. Almost a whole Terran day had passed since Kedesh’s encounter with the police, since when the view unravelling before the transport’s windscreen had remained an endless strip of road through a sea of red dunes. Yet over the last few hours the distant backdrop of rugged peaks had grown ever more imposing, below which they saw the first glimpse of the squat cluster of buildings at the abandoned landing strip. Another long day on Falsafah was coming to an end and the dramatic pink sunset ahead, as the yellow orb of Tau Ceti sank inexorably below the distant mountains, was one of the most spectacular things Ravana had seen. Artorius, standing behind the cockpit seats, was less than impressed.

“Are we there yet?” he asked grumpily. “We’ve been driving for ages.”

“Use your eyes!” snapped Kedesh. Ravana suspected she was not used to having company when travelling, though Artorius was trying everyone’s patience. “We’ll be at the airstrip soon enough and from there it’s a short run to the station. Once we’re there we’ll be able to stock up on food and get some rest.”

“Rest?” asked Ravana, doubtfully. “I’d rather keep moving.”

She and Kedesh were taking it in turns to drive the transport. The vehicle theoretically could drive itself, but earlier Kedesh had demonstrated how the transport would slow to a crawl when using its automatic guidance system, for it did not get on well with Falsafah’s lone navigation satellite. Ravana was currently at the controls and had hoped Kedesh shared her desire to get to Arallu as soon as possible. She glanced at Kedesh beside her, then at Artorius and the dozing greys in the cabin behind. All looked weary and in need of a break.

“There’s no road beyond the depot and the mountain pass is not well mapped,” said Kedesh. “I for one would like to get a proper night’s sleep and maybe stretch my legs before second innings. The next few days will not be…”

She stared at the scanner, her sentence unfinished, then frowned and started to tap at the external camera controls. Ravana looked at the console screen and immediately drew back the drive control lever to bring the transport to a halt. The visual display showed a flying-wing spacecraft, with distinctive engine nacelles unique to ships with vertical take-off and landing capability, parked on the runway at the airstrip complex ahead.

“Why have we stopped?” complained Artorius. His voice came unexpectedly loud in the tense silence, waking the greys from their slumber. “Are we there?”

“No,” murmured Ravana. “But someone is.”

“That’s a Que Qiao police cruiser,” Kedesh said wearily. “I checked the satellite scan earlier and Ininna’s and Yima’s ship was at the Dhusarians’ airstrip, not here. When they went off in the other direction, they must have gone back to their ship and used it to get here ahead of us. We should never have let them leave before we did.”

“You wanted a cup of tea before going anywhere,” Ravana pointed out. “What now?”

“If they’re paying attention to their own scanner, they know we’re here,” Kedesh replied. “I guess they’re waiting for us to declare.”

Ravana looked questioningly at Kedesh. The woman brought up a map of the local terrain on the navigation console and began to study it carefully. Nana came next to Artorius and together they peered over Kedesh’s shoulder. Stripy stood behind them, the grey’s spindly fingers rubbing large tired eyes in a disturbingly human way.

“Thraak?” exclaimed Nana.

“Please don’t do that right in my ear,” grumbled Kedesh.

Ravana leaned towards the console and looked for where they were on the map. A few kilometres north of their present position, an area of close-knit contours showed a winding valley that ran parallel to the road from the airstrip to its attendant outpost in the north-west. As she looked through the windscreen to match their surroundings with what was on the map, she caught a flash of silver and for a split second saw an indistinct shape with two yellow eyes staring at her from on top of a nearby rock, then it was gone.

“Weird,” she muttered.

“What’s weird?” asked Kedesh. She spoke so sharply that Ravana wondered if she had seen the same thing.

“I thought I saw something out there,” Ravana said weakly. “But it can’t have been.”

“Can’t have been what?”

Ravana blushed. “It looked like a cat. A tabby, no less.”

Artorius snorted with derision. “Ravana’s gone mental!” he announced.

Kedesh gave her an odd look. “A cat, you say?”

“I must be imagining things,” said Ravana with a sigh. “I keep seeing these yellow eyes out in the desert. Perhaps I need to lie down for a while.”

“I’ll take over shortly,” Kedesh said gently. “What about the map?”

Ravana stared at the navigation console and tried to put all thoughts of a furry desert phantom from her mind. Using her finger, she drew the woman’s attention to the contoured region she had identified earlier.

“What about there?” she suggested. “The road we want goes along the top of that ridge. If you want to avoid that ship, we may be able to drive through the valley below. It looks quite deep, which may stop their scanner picking us up.”

“Hmm,” murmured Kedesh. “I wonder why that area is shaded grey?”

“Fwack fwack?”

“No, I don’t think it’s a secret village of aliens.”

“Maybe it’s a bad idea,” Ravana said hastily.

“I haven’t got a better one,” Kedesh admitted. “As you said, anything that may cause us to drop off their radar for a while is worth a try. We should make a move before they start to wonder why we’ve stopped. I’d like to get to the depot by nightfall.”

Ravana nodded. She urged the transport into motion and soon they had left the road behind and were bounding across the rock-strewn desert towards the parched rolling dunes. As she drove, she became aware of Kedesh’s stern glances and was left with the uncomfortable feeling she should have kept her weird visions to herself.