Wolf Read - The Flowers That Bloom in the Spring

Illustration by Wolf Read

“All right, let’s bag the thing!” Wildwind called. He grabbed the controls to the ATVs projectile weapon.

Angered, Annwn reached over and slapped his hands away. “How can you do that?”

Wildwind looked indignant. “It could be dangerous!”

“We’re here on an exploratory mission.”

“So?” He crossed his arms.

“So,” said Miranda, sitting behind the two arguers, managing the communications and navigation controls, “that means we’re supposed to determine things, not jump to conclusions.”

“Yeah, but how can we explore if some beast sucks us into its gullet!”

“That’s the risk we take, right?” said Annwn, becoming tired of the argument. “No shooting. Period.”

Wildwind looked at Kwazar, who wisely shrugged.

He sighed, giving in.

Annwn smiled inwardly. She liked to see Wildwind defeated.

A jarring report echoed from the front of the vehicle. Annwn found herself thrown into the dash as emergency airbags erupted throughout the compartment. The ballooning bags forced her back into her seat. Hissing quietly, the safety devices deflated.

“OK, what happened?” Annwn asked angrily, even though she already knew. The argument had distracted her, and she had let the vehicle hit something.

“We’ve smacked a rock, I believe,” came Miranda’s nervous reply.

“A rock?!” She felt bad, but couldn’t help her temper; so many things had gone wrong! “Why didn’t you warn me? And what happened to the proximity alert?”

Miranda, face partially hidden by limp airbags, looked unhappy. “The argument distracted me. I’m sorry.”

“Well, we’re all sorry now, aren’t we?” Annwn said, unable to help the harsh tones toward her friend. “Who’s going to fix the—”

“We’ve trouble!” called Wildwind as he grabbed the weapon’s controls.

“Now what? Hands off the gun!”

Wildwind slammed the trigger. THUMP!

Angered beyond speech, Annwn’s face heated up.

Wildwind calmly stared at his exterior display. “Dammit, I only winged—”

The impact shook the vehicle as if it were a frail bubble convulsing in the wind. Bulging inward, the right-hand wall shrieked the grating wail of abused metal, throwing built-in consoles and keypads into Wildwind’s lap while scattering debris across the floor.

Kwazar calmly said, “That beast is attacking our vehicle.”

“Shit!” Wildwind gave both the smashed computers and Annwn the evil eye. “I would have killed the thing earlier!” He threw wrecked consoles across the cab, some of which destructively collided with the navigation controls. Nearly struck by the missile, Miranda screamed.

Annwn unstrapped and moved toward Wildwind, balling her small right hand into a fist. “I’ve had enough of—”

The vehicle shuddered under another massive impact, flipping onto its side. Annwn fell into the wall to her left, which had become the floor. Heavy padding protected her from injury.

She heard Wildwind’s infuriating laugh.

Bang! What had been the floor folded inward, sending Wildwind’s chair into the ceiling now serving as a wall. The chair’s high top protected him, a great disappointment to Annwn. Behind Wildwind, she could see Miranda holding the seat-rails tightly, her face a mask of fear. Kwazar looked disturbingly calm. His apathy left Annwn very frustrated. He seemed to be calmly waiting for the inevitable.

Why not? she realized. It’s happened many times before…

With yet another ear-ringing crash, Wildwind’s seat buckled as the floor caved inward. He unstrapped and dropped next to a sprawling Annwn. Looking down, he said, “Let me get a hand weapon. We’ve got to do something.” He looked unhappy at having to ask permission. Good, she thought. Let him squirm.

“No. This beast will lose interest soon enough.”

“Right,” he said sarcastically. “We don’t know what the animal will do.” He turned around and walked toward the rear, ducking under the bent seat.

Enraged at his lack of respect for her authority, she launched herself toward his feet. He lost balance as she wrapped her long arms around his ankle. Falling forward, he landed close to the small-arms locker. With a stretch, he had the door open. “Ha!” he said as he reached for a pistol.

Annwn stood up, intending to walk over him and grab the handgun. The creature, whatever it was—she never even bothered to look, assuming that it was an overgrown hallucihexadon, or a monopouncer—had other tilings in mind, and slammed into the vehicle again. Behind her, the windshield crashed inward, mashing the seat she had occupied. The shock pushed her to the “floor.” She cried out in rage.

Wildwind tried the rear-hatch controls. The mechanism had failed. “Damn!” he called out, giving the door a hard kick. “I’ll shoot the thing open!” He pointed his gun at the switch—

Annwn yelled, “No!” and grabbed a piece of debris to throw at his hand—

Kwazar, deciding not to risk being hit, pushed the quick release on his safety harness in a vain attempt to stop her—

Miranda sat still, her black hair highlighting a confused face—

With an earthquake-like jolt, the vehicle floated through the air. Annwn didn’t think a creature existed on Elara that could lift the vehicle so far with a single hit. The only possibility would be—she shuddered and grabbed the nearest seat, which happened to be Miranda’s. Miranda gave her a panicked stare that seemed to say, “Why?”

Miranda’s expression made her feel bad, but she couldn’t comfort her, not now anyway.

A jarring impact coursed through the vehicle. Annwn felt herself being pressed forcefully into the floor. A wash of water chilled her legs, and slithered across her cheek.

“Oh, no!” she said. They had landed in a lake or something, and the ATV’s seals had been broken by the Elaran creature! Sinking fast! She tried to stand up, but the water forced her down, surging above her bony knees. Wildwind furiously banged on the door with his strong fists. He must have dropped the gun during the fall.

The scene froze, and dissolved.

Annwn’s vision focused on the multitude of monitors embedded in the learning console before her. She wanted desperately to leave. She had been in charge, and therefore most of the ruckus had been her responsibility.

“I see,” said Teacher, with an irritated voice that seemed to emanate from nowhere in particular, “that you haven’t learned much since the last sim.”

Annwn nodded solemnly, regretting her actions. But I couldn't help it, she wanted to cry out loud. That stupid Wildwind was to blame! She held silent, for she knew Teacher would not be tolerant of “outbursts. ” Artificial intelligences were good at being firm.

“You all failed.”

“Failed?” cried Wildwind from his spot behind her.

“Yes, due to an inability to settle petty differences, the entire mission ended—how should I put it?— rather abruptly. No single action that I witnessed suggested that any of you are ready for the task of living on an alien world.”

“Yeah,” replied Wildwind, “but Bode’s not Elara. Bode’s real!”

“Quiet!” Teacher paused. “Elara has been used effectively by generations of colonists. Elara is probably the most detailed life-bearing planet training module ever created. Nothing else has worked as well. And whether or not Elara is real is beside the point. You can still learn from the sim, and none of you seem to be doing so.”