Steph Bennion - Paw-Prints of the Gods

“Missi?” she called.

The hologram appeared near the doorway and greeted her with a nod.

“How may I be of assistance?” asked the AI.

“Ravana’s results,” Kedesh said. She pointed towards the scanner. “Delete them.”

The circular common room was well-appointed with comfortable furnishings, a small kitchenette and a dark round skylight in the roof high above to provide natural light during the long Falsafah days. The most welcoming sight of all was the room’s military-grade food molecularisor, which to their surprise was fully stocked and ready to serve whatever they desired. Artorius’ stubborn vote for copious amounts of ice-cream was ignored and instead Ravana set it to deliver a feast of delectable English and Indian dishes to satisfy their hunger. Missi reappeared briefly when Artorius accidentally stumbled against a control panel, but there was something about the hologram that unnerved Ravana and she was quick to dismiss the AI’s offer of assistance.

It was not long after the now-obligatory cup of tea and slice of cake that their weariness finally caught up with them. Artorius was the first to yawn, which proved contagious and one by one they shuffled away to the dormitories to get some sleep. When Ravana suggested they sleep in shifts as a precaution, Kedesh pointed out that Missi would undoubtedly warn them to any dangers, but did agree to a little sabotage of the dormitory door circuits so that they could only be opened from inside.

Despite her reservations, Ravana slept soundly. The room was comfortable and quiet, the latter by virtue of Artorius and the restless greys having taken the second dormitory for themselves. Kedesh had been unusually coy when getting ready for bed and insisted on undressing in private, but the woman’s presence in the neighbouring bunk was comforting. Ravana’s own bed was snug and warm, her belly was full and in the darkness of the room she felt safe. Images of ghastly alien clones, giant spiders and the mysterious dark-haired woman hovered on the edge of her dreams but the nightmares never came.

Kedesh was evidently a light sleeper, for when Ravana awoke several hours later the woman’s bed was empty and her clothes were gone. After a quick visit to the dormitory’s small bathroom, Ravana slipped on her overalls and headed towards the hangar, from where she could hear faint sounds of activity. A decent night’s sleep had done her good and her bones no longer ached like they did. She had been on Falsafah for over six weeks, which was normally long enough to adjust to local gravity. It was only her mistreatment at the hands of Jizo and Lilith that had left her overly-conscious of weight that, though less than what it would be on Earth, was still more than she was used to carrying back home.

Ravana reached the door to the computer suite and paused. Earlier, she had been too tired to try anything, but now wondered if the station had a transmitter capable of sending a message back home. Entering the room, she examined the military equipment. The holovid booth was of a familiar commercial design, but after switching it on her hopes were dashed when she was confronted by a message reporting a fault with the antenna. What puzzled her was that the system log showed a call had been made earlier that night. Disheartened, Ravana abandoned the computer suite and resumed her way to the hangar.

Their battered transport was on jacks, with one of its rear wheels removed and multi-limbed robots busy at work conducting repairs. The attached refuelling line was an optimistic touch, for the vehicle was clearly not going anywhere soon. Kedesh was nowhere in sight, but her plasma cannon lay next to a pile of rags upon a workbench, looking freshly cleaned. Ravana guessed it was her who had instructed the depot’s robots to start repairs, which judging by their progress must have been several hours ago. The ramshackle remains of another transport parked next to their own was not a good advert for their services.

One of the squat maintenance automatons was having problems getting into position to clean a broken shock-absorber mount for welding. Ravana took some gloves and auto-shield goggles from the bench, relieved the robot of its grinding tool, knelt beside it and absorbed herself in the task of stripping dirt and rust from the damaged steel. That done, it took a matter of minutes to clamp the mount back onto the chassis and use the robot’s gas arc welder to finalise the repair. While she did not share Zotz’s mania for inventing things, she was good at fixing machines and it felt good to be doing something useful. The job finished, she left the automaton to its duties and watched as another robot, clinging limpet-like to the hull, applied liquid glass to the myriad of cracks across the windscreen.

“Industrious little things, are they not?” a voice purred behind her.

Startled, Ravana jumped and then froze in wonder at the sight of a small black and silver tabby cat sitting on top of a tool cabinet near the door, nonchalantly licking its paws. The cat paused to return her stare, leapt lightly to the floor and in a surreal blink of an eye abruptly metamorphosed into the tall, dark-haired woman Ravana had seen earlier. She wore the same full-length fur coat, which was open to reveal a long, blindingly-white column dress gathered below the bust. The stranger’s baleful yellow stare bore into her like that of a caged tiger idly awaiting the right moment to snap the zoo keeper’s neck in two. Ravana nervously backed away. There was something beyond the woman’s supernatural method of arrival that terrified her.

“Who are you?” Ravana’s words trembled. “Where did you come from?”

“You humans are so creative,” the woman remarked, ignoring Ravana’s questions. “There seems to be no limit to what you or your clever devices can do. Your motives may be questionable, but your determination is second to none. Most impressive.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Sorry? Use that word with care!” the woman hissed. “One day you will know the true depths of remorse. But take heart!” she said gaily, her tone suddenly brightening. “Even the most humble of pawns can be queen if they make the right moves. The trick to survival, my dear Ravana of Yuanshi, is to understand your place in the great game.”

“How do you know my…” began Ravana. She was speaking to thin air.

The woman had disappeared in a tiny flash of silver fur. Frightened, Ravana shuffled around the edge of the hangar, keeping her panic-stricken stare wide open for the woman’s return as she hastened towards the door. Only then did she scream and run.

“Would you like to play a game?”

Artorius opened a sleepy eye, saw the hazy monochrome figure at the foot of his bunk and sat bolt upright in bed in alarm. The boy rubbed sleep from his eyes and the shape resolved into the familiar hologram of Missi. Artorius gave an involuntary yawn and looked around the dormitory. The trail of sheets and blankets leading from where Nana and Stripy had been sleeping suggested they were up and about somewhere.

“What?” asked Artorius, confused. “A game?”

“I am well-versed in chess,” the hologram continued. “And many other pursuits.”

“I’m hungry,” the boy complained. “What time is it?”

“We will play later,” Missi acknowledged, this time with a slight edge to its voice, not that Artorius noticed. “A healthy mind makes for healthy flesh.”

Artorius thought about this, then threw back his sheets and scrambled messily to the edge of his bunk. Somehow he had forgotten to get undressed before going to bed.

“Do you know the slapping game?” he asked.

Ravana ran along the circular corridor, eager to distance herself from the scene of her disturbing close encounter. She heard the reassuring sound of Kedesh’s voice from a room ahead and moments later burst through the door into the dome’s laboratory. Her panic turned to disgust at the sight of Kedesh elbows deep in slime, for the woman was busy dissecting the mangled remains of a metre-wide black spider. Beside her, Missi’s hologram hovered disconcertingly a few centimetres above the floor. Kedesh and the AI were in deep discussion and barely gave Ravana a glance as she skidded to a halt inside the room.