Thursday September 26, 2024
Thursday September 26, 2024
Aelwyd: Scene 6
Welcome, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. In this daily newsletter, I reflect on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully, including my struggles to maintain a balanced life, what I listen to, read, and watch for entertainment, and occasional bits of information I’ve gleaned from doing the research for my novels.
In addition, now and again I will provide some of my fiction to read, for free, on this newsletter. Everything is available to anyone who subscribes, but I am always pleased when someone shows their appreciation for the newsletter by upgrading to paid, and I particularly enjoy getting likes and comments at the bottom of posts.
Daily Diary, Day 1485:
Today, I’ve included the sixth scene in Aelwyd: Home, my short story in the Caelestis series set in the Paradisi Chronicles universe. I am publishing a new scene every Tuesday and Thursday. If you haven’t read the first two introductory posts yet, I strongly suggest you do so before you start on the short story itself. To find the first of these two posts, or the earlier scenes, click HERE.
Aelwyd: Home
By Louisa Locke, copyright 2016
Scene 6:
When she finally got down out of the tree, the man searched her pack, looking with interest at its construction and then at the rain slicker, then indicated she should put it and the pack on. He heaved the carcass of the dead animal over his shoulder and motioned that she start walking in front of him, following the wolf-dog that trotted assuredly through the trees as if it were daylight.
She wasn’t sure how long they walked, or if they were going deeper into the forest. Everything felt more and more surreal. A dream that felt like it would never end. But they couldn’t have traveled too long because when they emerged into a clearing, the moons hadn’t yet set. Instead, their combined light revealed that she was surrounded by dozens of men, women, and animals, all staring intently at her without making a sound.
A woman she judged as old by the gray in her hair and lines on her face, walked up to her and touched her cheek gently. The suppressed terror Kammie was feeling abruptly eased. Unresisting, she followed the woman who pulled her to a low dwelling that was one of a circle of other similar huts. Pulling a flap aside, she pushed Kammie into its dark confines.
At first, Kammie couldn’t see anything beyond a small brazier of rocks in the center of the room that glowed but didn’t give off any heat.
Pieces of the sun? No, that can’t be right.
Then she heard a moan. When she leaned over, she saw a small boy huddled in a nest of soft blankets on the ground.
Stewart!
She sank down at his side and her terror returned as she felt the heat radiating from him. Putting her hand to his forehead, she confirmed that he was in a high fever. He whimpered as if her very touch hurt him and his breathing was labored, rattling as if there was already fluid in his lungs.
“Stewart,” she whispered. “I’m here. It’s going to be all right.”
Was it?
“The earth sang a song to me. I had to go,” Stewart mumbled. “I don’t feel well . . . where’s my Nanna? I want my Nanna.” He began to cry weakly.
How did he get so ill so quickly? They’d been outside the base camp for no more than fifteen or so hours, and there wasn’t any sign he’d been injured. But what if this were some sort of deadly virus native to New Eden? She had to get him to medical facilities immediately.
The mobile.
She gently patted him to see if it was in the pocket of his shorts, but found nothing.
She pantomimed to the woman a rectangle the size and shape of the mobile. The woman pointed at a pouch that lay next to Stewart. When Kammie opened up the drawstring, she saw the mobile, and with immense relief she switched it on and saw it still had a charge.
Before she could do anything else, a sound from the other side of the room distracted her. She looked questioningly at the woman, who pointed at another nest of blankets where another small boy lay. Kammie moved over to see what was wrong, but as she reached out her hand to see if he also had a fever, she froze when he started to cough.
She’d seen the documentary vid about how a whole regiment under her father’s command on Earth died when they’d caught an illness that caused just this kind of odd whooping sound. A previously extinct childhood illness that had mutated into a virus that hit young men and women in their prime . . . fatally. But Stewart, like all of them who were allowed on this trip, would have been vaccinated against it, in all its mutations, and he wasn’t coughing.
The woman went to the door of the hut and beckoned urgently. Reluctantly, Kammie let the woman lead her away from Stewart and take her into the next hut. Here another woman held up a glowing rock so Kammie could see the dwelling’s occupants. The first person she saw was a young woman sitting on a bed, staring listlessly out of inflamed eyes, her face covered with large red splotches. Appalled, Kammie backed away, noticing that the hut was filled with people, all of them exhibiting the same symptoms, which looked frighteningly like another illness that Kammie had read about called measles.
Was it possible the natives had gotten these illnesses from contact with the humans from Earth? But how? Then she remembered hearing her mother say there were rumors that the Quinns, the financial founding family, had let a small group of wealthy eccentrics whose beliefs included rejection of vaccines or genetic modification come with them on their ship—for a price. Her mother called them all sorts of fools but said, “When Money talks, Reason walks.”
Since the boundary to the Quinn’s country, Vida, was just across the river from New Hong Kong Base Camp, if any of those settlers had been sick and had contact with a native, it was possible that an epidemic could already have made it north of the river to the natives living here.
She shook her head. She needed to contact the base camp right away. Stewart needed immediate medical attention, as did these people. Or the death rate could be enormous.
The mobile. She looked down at her hand and realized she’d left it next to Stewart. What’s wrong with me?
But when she emerged from the hut, she was stunned to see that the camp was being rapidly dismantled. The huts around her had been turned into piles of hides that were placed on narrow three-wheeled carts. She turned back around and saw that the people in the hut she’d just left were already being carried out and tenderly placed on stretchers. The stretchers were attached to some kind of harnesses on the large canines, who immediately started pulling them off into the trees.
She stared after them, again as if she were in some sort of dream, until the man ran up to her and angrily threw something down at her feet.
The mobile.
Kammie picked it up, saying, “Why is everyone leaving? Don’t you understand, I can use this to call for help.” She reached out and tugged at the man’s arm as he turned away from her. He stared at her then pointed up at the sky, shrugged, and walked away.
She stared upward. Caeruleum, the largest moon, had disappeared, but tiny Acerba was still there, almost lost among the multiple stars in the night sky.
She didn’t know how long she stared upward, but when she finally looked back down, everyone and everything was gone, melted into the trees as if the encampment had never existed.
Stewart!
She twirled around to see the man walking up to her, holding her stepbrother in his arms.
She cried out, “You have to bring them back. Please, we can help you. Otherwise, many of you will die.”
Kammie never in her life wanted so badly to be understood, but the man just shook his head and pushed her to a sitting position so he could place Stewart in her lap.
Then he ran silently off into the woods, his canine companion at his side.
She cradled Stewart as he moaned and moved restlessly in her arms. He’s so hot, but then so am I. What shall I do? Then she remembered the mobile.
Why do I keep forgetting it?
That was when she heard a faint mechanical sound. Looking back up, she saw a black shape blot out the sliver of the small moon. Within an instant, a bright light blasted the clearing, revealing a swarm of odd shapes zipping silently down ropes and transformed into soldiers as they hit the ground, heads helmeted, uniforms bristling with gear, and guns pointed at her and her stepbrother.
A moment later a large, familiar figure strode out of the trees, telegraphing his anger and disgust with every step.
The earth screamed . . . or was it her?
That was when Kammie decided she no longer wanted to be conscious, and she closed her eyes and went to sleep.
To be continued…
Brief check-in: Fridge repairman arrived yesterday (at end of 4 hour window), pointed a hand thermometer at the insides of fridge, said “too cold” and that he would order a damper control part, which—if it arrives in time—someone would install next Weds! So I guess that is progress. We did, however get the croc and stand for water dispenser and set it up last night, and the new company will start deliveries next Friday. Between now and then we will finish up the bottles from the old company so we can get them and the unwanted hot and cold dispenser picked up.) This new system is smaller, and much nicer looking than the old beige plastic dispenser, and we can get 3 gallon versus 5 gallon bottles, so less strain on my husband’s back. So a definite improvement all around.
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