The Captain's Harvest Read online

  “Thank God.”

  The previous week, Cecelia and Mehtab had been collecting rocks on the beach―while neither were experts in the field, both had a hobbyist’s interest in geology―when Cecelia had been stung by a pumpkin-sized arthropod. By the time she’d returned to the ship, her left leg had been twice its normal size. Mehtab, thankfully, had had the foresight to catch their assailant in a bucket. Presented with it, Rux had told Antoine all he knew regarding the properties of its venom and helped to devise an antidote while Cecelia had remained in the medical pod to stave off cardiac arrest.

  The episode had been a grim reminder of how little they really knew about their new home. On the plus side, when the arthropod’s venom glands had been removed they’d found that parts of its body were not only edible but delicious. Once Cecelia’s voice had returned, she’d expressed an intent to hunt down and devour every last one of them. Antoine had given their new favourite food a Latin name that incorporated her surname in her honour, but everyone else called it by Rick’s chosen epithet: the bastard-murder-crab.

  “Regarding the culprit, Rux has told me they infest most of the beaches in this region, but they only sting during mating season.”

  “How’s his catalogue coming along?” asked Khurshed. After Cecelia’s accident, Rux had begun compiling a list of all potentially dangerous plants and wildlife in Yusra’s temperate zone, marine and terrestrial.

  “Oh, quite well. He’s rigorous; I’ll say that for him. Each entry is excruciatingly detailed, so it’s going to take a while. And, of course, we all know our newest crewmate can be prone to distraction…”

  Chapter 2

  What pleasures, thought Rux, on this or any other planet, can compare to the sensuous gratification of warm laundry?

  True, his newfound infatuation for Khurshed’s freshly ironed pants had a lot to do with the biological preferences of the body he was currently inhabiting. It was, in appearance, identical to the ship’s cat, Moxie, save for its emerald-green fur, and seemed to derive as much lurid bliss from the smell of clean, dry linen as his humanoid body did from having its cock sucked.

  Unfortunately, he suspected he would shortly have to move. Echo and Thomas were busy chatting next to the laundry basket nearby and would spot him as soon as they came over to this corner of the room: whereupon, as precedence had taught him, Echo would demand that he shift into a form with fingers and remove every last strand of green cat hair he had left behind. Until that sad moment, however, Rux was perfectly content to lie still and eavesdrop on their conversation.

  Not with his ears, of course. Thomas had started making a concerted effort to become fluent in Echo’s first language, designating every Tuesday and Thursday a No Mouth-Talking Day. So Rux kept one eye open, peering out through the laundry basket weave.

  Khurshed’s told us we can ask him any questions we want to about his back problem, Thomas signed clumsily. But I’m too chickenshit. When he said he used rejuvenation tech, I didn’t really understand how it worked. I thought maybe you just had an injection or some surgery and then you were good. Then when he mentioned the pills, I had this ‘holy crap’ moment. Because, yeah, obviously he’s going to run out. I should have asked him then and there how many he had left. I think he was waiting for me to ask.

  He’s given me permission to answer your questions on his behalf, said Echo, whose hands moved with far more grace and ease. I can tell you now if you want.

  Okay. How many?

  Enough to last half a year if he rations them.

  Thomas didn’t respond to that because his hand was covering his mouth. After a moment, he took a deep breath and signed, What happens when he runs out?

  In a few weeks, he’ll look like what he is: a fit eighty-two-year-old man who eats healthily and gets regular exercise.

  I don’t―

  You don’t care about his looks. I know. The problem is the arthritis. He’ll have difficulty walking. The ship can be made accessible fairly easily, and the medical pod can be of some limited use in terms of pain management.

  Thomas nodded stiffly. Rux had no natural talent for reading human body language, but he had picked up the basics. His friend was trying not to cry.

  Rux was torn. He’d known about Khurshed’s condition longer than any of them. It had been one of their first topics of conversation after he’d kidnapped him and dragged him back to his lair. He was also aware that he himself might have the means to help. But the last time he had announced to the crew that he knew a way to resolve a looming crisis, he’d almost gotten them killed. It had been a humbling experience. On the other hand, his initial curious amusement at the captain and his men had long since evolved into helpless adoration, and he couldn’t stand to see even one of them so obviously upset.

  He sprang out of the laundry basket, padded across the floor, and leapt into Thomas’s lap, provoking a startled yelp.

  “Before I speak, I must acknowledge that, hitherto, my ideas and advice have proven fallible,” said Rux. “I do not wish to give you false hope. However, I feel it would be wrong of me not to mention that there exists, on this planet, a potential solution to our captain’s problem. Centuries ago my creators discovered a substance―a fungus―that grows in the steppes, some eight hundred miles north of our current location. When ingested, it had astonishing medicinal properties. After domesticating it, they spent years refining and enhancing its effects, extending their lifespans drastically in the process. The supply was always limited, which was one of the reasons they were careful to keep their population low, but it flourished right up until their departure from this world. Moreover, it wasn’t only effective on their bodies. Pets and endangered species were often…hrrk.”

  Rux had anticipated Thomas’s expression of wide-eyed wonder and blooming hope. He hadn’t anticipated Echo’s seizing him by the neck in a vicelike grip and shaking him until he thought his limbs would fly off.

  Why didn’t you say something sooner?! Echo signed when Thomas had persuaded him to let Rux go. He’s been in pain for months! You useless, useless creature!

  Rux shifted into his humanoid form and dropped to one knee in front of the ship’s cook. “Please, Echo, don’t be angry with me. I swear to you, I made the captain aware of this information within days of my joining your crew. Why he hasn’t relayed it to you, I do not know, but…”

  He trailed off. Echo’s gentle, heart-shaped face was a vision of horror.

  “Echo?” said Thomas tentatively.

  Without acknowledging him, Echo turned and stormed from the room.

  I’ve made things worse, Rux thought. A lump formed in his throat.

  Thomas crouched down beside him, blowing out his cheeks and running a hand through his hair. “Well, that… Hey, Rux? You okay?”

  Rux attempted to emulate Thomas’s stiff nod. He couldn’t do it properly, so instead he seized Thomas in a bear hug. “Echo hates me.”

  “Aw, c’mon now. He didn’t mean it,” Thomas said, returning the hug.

  Rux sniffed. “I still feel despondent. Can we have sex?”

  “Great idea. First, though, I want you to show me on the map exactly where this fungus of yours is…”

  * * *

  Echo got as far as the door to Khurshed’s office before stopping, balling his fists, and then sitting down with his back against the wall and his knees drawn up to his chest.

  Don’t let him see that you’re angry. You’ve no right to be angry. He has his reasons for not telling you. It’s his body and his life. Stop being angry.

  “Echo?”

  One look at Khurshed’s head poking out of his office and Echo leapt to his feet. After pushing the captain back into the room, he slammed his hand on the panel to shut the door after them.

  “Is something wrong?” Khurshed ventured.

  Rux says his people discovered something that could help with the arthritis. He says he told you ages ago. And you decided not to tell me. Why?

  Khurshed sighed, sitting back in
his chair. “In my defence, I’ve been busy. There was the engine malfunction. Then there was the message from our alien friends. Antoine’s proposed cloning the cat. Cecelia almost died. There hasn’t been a great deal of time for me to―”

  While Lunar Sign Language had a wealth of curse words, it didn’t have a sufficiently forceful equivalent for ‘bullshit’, so Echo thrust a middle finger in Khurshed’s face before using it to say, It would have taken you five minutes to tell me about Rux’s idea. One minute. Why didn’t you?

  “Well, there’s also the fact that the medicine Rux is talking about was developed by his progenitors―who, as we recently discovered, are none other than the kidnappers who teleported us here in the first place.”

  We’ve used their technology before when we repaired the ship. Why didn’t you tell me?

  “Another thing to bear in mind,” said Khurshed doggedly, “is that the last time we went scavenging amidst the ruins of their civilization we were attacked by robots.”

  Why didn’t you tell me?

  Khurshed growled, “Because it might not work. I haven’t decided whether or not I want to go to the trouble and risk being disappointed. Which is entirely my decision to make.”

  Echo was chewing the back of his wrist, an old stim that had long fallen into disuse. Drawing it out of his mouth, he said, I still wish you’d told me. You’ve always told me everything. I knew about the scars, your father, your age, I knew about all of that long before any of the others. You never kept anything from me. You knew you could trust me to keep your secrets. That was the one thing I could give you that they couldn’t. They can give you sex whenever you want it. They like going outside and exploring with you. They’re all much more educated than me, so they understand you when you ramble about poetry, or astronomy, or—

  Frustration cut him off as his hands contracted into fists. Marching up to Khurshed until their faces were inches apart, he continued, And I’ve always told you everything. I’ve never kept one single secret from you.

  Khurshed bowed his head, touching their foreheads together. It was one of the alternatives to kissing they’d devised in earliest days of their relationship when Echo’s aversion to germs had made pressing their lips together an impossibility. “I know. I’m sorry.”

  All his anger spent, Echo leant into his chest, listening to his heartbeat. Eventually, drawing back, he said, I’m sorry for shouting. I’m still upset about yesterday. My reaction was pathetic. I felt like a child.

  “I have never found you remotely pathetic or childish.”

  We don’t have to pursue Rux’s suggestion if you don’t want to. It’s your choice, Captain.

  Someone cleared their throat. Echo almost jumped out of his skin as Zachery stood up from behind Khurshed’s desk.

  “Wiring’s fixed,” he said to Khurshed, picking up the toolbox Echo only now noticed sitting on the floor beside him. “Also, if I can chip in? I understand about half of what Echo just said, and I totally agree with that last part. But the thing is, Cap, I need you. So do the others. If there’s even a chance Rux’s idea will work, we should look into it. I think you owe us that much.”

  “Fine. Your point is made.”

  On his way out the door, Zachery added, “Plus, d’you know how pissed Antoine’s going to be if you die one second before he thinks you should? You won’t even get a funeral. He’ll throw your corpse in a ditch and set fire to all your stuff.”

  Chapter 3

  Throughout his life, Echo had never been entirely comfortable outdoors. The amount of anxiety it caused him fluctuated, but generally he’d prefer even the grimmest, grimiest room to a beach or open field. So it was with some relief that he listened to Rux explain that the laboratory they needed to visit was located deep underground.

  “It’s the third most extensive cave system on the planet,” Rux informed them in the manner of a tour guide three days later.

  “And that’s the entrance, is it?” said Antoine, eyeing the dark crevice to which he had directed them. The Prayer was parked a short distance away, having travelled across eight hundred miles of increasingly barren terrain to these flat and seemingly featureless plains. “It seems a somewhat…primitive site for a laboratory.”

  “It isn’t merely a laboratory. My people engaged in many great scientific feats in the caverns beneath us, but that wasn’t their primary purpose. They were sacred spaces to which thousands made the pilgrimage every year. Many believed they could speak to departed loved ones here, and our lawmakers punished those who attempted to alter the surrounding landscape in any way.”

  “How far down do we need to climb?” asked Zachery. “And what sort of security are we looking at?”

  “We will not need to climb at all. There are stairs that will take us all the way to the bottom of the central cavern. As for security, there is none. It was inconceivable to my people that anyone would ever try to burglarize this holy place.”

  “So no robot guards this time? No lasers?”

  Rux chuckled. “No, no. All weapons were forbidden.”

  “Even so, I would prefer it if Thomas could bring his rifle,” said Khurshed.

  “Of course he may, Captain. I do not unthinkingly cling to the beliefs of my forebears. Although there really is no need for him to do so.”

  The stairs, when they found them, were was so narrow and the dark tunnel into which they descended so cramped that the crew had to proceed in single file, Rux going first with Rick bringing up the rear. There were only the seven of them on this particular mission; the others were remaining behind with the ship in case a cave-in occurred and a hasty rescue was required. Khurshed had initially proposed that he and Rux enter alone, a notion which the rest of them had rejected out of hand.

  Beautiful, Echo thought as the light from their torches shone on the cave walls, in which some unknown mineral sparkled like a star-lit sky.

  “The stairs ahead will be slippery, so proceed with care,” Rux called back to them. “We will descend for no more than fifty metres before reaching the main cavern.”

  “Great,” said Thomas through gritted teeth, his grip tight on his weapon. “Not liking this poky mole tunnel so much.”

  For Thomas’s sake, Echo was glad when their torches showed the cavern to be large enough to accommodate several dozen aircraft hangars. Far more striking, however, were the domed structures that almost filled it to capacity. From above, it was hard to judge their size precisely, but they were at least as large as The Prayer and in far better repair than any of the ruins of Rux’s civilization they had seen aboveground.

  “The fungus grows close to that building there, the one with the arched doorway,” said Rux, pointing. “I estimate that reaching it will take another half hour or so if we maintain this pace.”

  “And you are utterly certain that there is no security whatsoever?” Antoine pressed.

  “I give you my word, First Officer,” said Rux. A moment later, he added, “Of course, the ghosts might be a problem.”

  Antoine’s nose twitched. “Ghosts?”

  “Mm. The entire cave system is infested with them. My people never discovered exactly why they congregated here in such numbers, but it was posited that they might be attracted by all the prayers.”

  “Rux, when you say ‘ghosts’, what exactly do you mean?”

  “Are you not familiar with the concept? Strange; from what I have learned of your culture, I thought that―”

  “We know what ghosts are. However, there must be some difference between the way we understand the term and the way you understand the term, Rux, because an essential feature of our understanding of ghosts is that they don’t exist.”

  Rux frowned. “If they don’t exist on your world, why do you have a word for them?”

  “Er, well… We have many words for things that don’t exist because we used to think they did exist.”

  “Really? When my people learned that something they had thought existed didn’t exist, they erased the word for i
t from their language. How interesting your species is. Well, the ghosts I refer to are simply the departed spirits of deceased members of my species. Their ability to interact with this material plane is limited. But when they congregate they can cause all kinds of havoc, such as damaging scientific equipment, making small objects levitate, and creating powerful illusions. On occasion―when provoked―they were known to cause earth tremors.”

  He examined their expressions. “Do I detect a certain level of scepticism?”

  “It’s not that I don’t believe you,” said Antoine delicately. “However, am I correct in thinking that you heard about these supernatural occurrences from your creators? And that you never actually saw such things take place yourself?”

  “Ah. You think they were lying to me.”

  “Not lying, as such. Telling stories. You were their child, in a way. On Earth, parents tell their children stories all the time. It’s an important part of the developmental process.”

  Rux scratched his chin. “I see your logic. However, I do not believe my creators considered me their child. I would advise you all to remain on the lookout for uncanny phenomena.”

  As they moved on, Echo overheard Antoine say to Khurshed, “Another possible explanation is that there’s something in the air down here that induces hallucinations. We should check our breathing equipment regularly.”

  They continued down the stairs until they reached the domed structure Rux had gestured towards. Looking at it made Echo shiver. Most of the buildings they’d seen so far on Yusra’s surface had been crudely intimidating, seemingly designed to resemble a predator’s jagged teeth. This one, with its smooth lozenge-like curvature, had a subtler air of menace to it. Despite being neglected for millennia, it was perfectly intact, right down to the decorations; it had been painted a dark oily green, with intermittent abstract white splotches that could have been interpreted any number of ways, but seemed to Echo alarmingly like pale, shrieking faces.

  “We go through the main corridor and into the courtyard beyond where the fungus grows,” said Rux.