Snatched from Earth Read online

  CHAPTER 7 [MAKTEL]

  STRANDED

  Much as I feared Ellico vec Bur, I did understand that we had a moral duty to remove the Trader(s) from the ship. So while Tim and Pleskit went to help Linnsy haul the veccir from their seat, I searched for the mechanism to open the outer door. I checked the atmo-reader before opening the door, of course. Assuming the device had not been damaged by the crash, the air outside was a little rich in oxygen and had more nitrogen than I really liked, but was clearly safe for us to breathe.

  I pulled the handle.

  The door swung down, revealing a dense jungle. The ship was resting in a cloud of fireproof lavender foam, so at least our external safety systems were working. It was a good thing too. Otherwise we might have found ourselves in the middle of a raging forest fire.

  I hoped the internal safety systems were also working. The inward rush of oxygen-rich air—warm, damp, and sweet—would encourage any fires that might be on the verge of breaking out. It was hard to tell whether the smoke meant that the safety systems had successfully quenched any potential fires, or that the ship was in danger of bursting into flames at any moment.

  I wanted to bolt. Then Pleskit, Linnsy, and Tim came back into the passenger cabin, dragging Ellico vec Bur’s limp body with them.

  “Maktel, come here and help!” ordered Linnsy, who could be quite bossy.

  I went over and grabbed one of the Trader(s)’ thighs. Linnsy took the other. With Tim and Pleskit holding the Trader(s)’ shoulders, we picked them up and carried them down the door—which also acted as a ramp.

  “Another planet,” said Tim as we reached the ground. His voice was filled with wonder. “We’re standing on another planet!”

  “Well, we’d better stand a little farther from the ship if we’re going to survive on this planet,” I said sharply. “Let’s keep moving, just in case it decides to explode.”

  It wasn’t easy to get away from the ship. Not only were we still carrying Ellico vec Bur, but the underbrush was thick and clinging, and kept tripping us.

  “I hope none of this stuff is poisonous,” muttered Pleskit.

  It was a reasonable fear. Even a brief study of the plant life of the galaxy can leave one in awe of the strange and terrible ways plants have of protecting themselves—as our Earthling friends learned when we finally came to a clear space far enough from the ship that we felt it was safe to stop and put Ellico vec Bur down.

  I bent over and put my hands on my knees, exhausted from the effort. I heard Linnsy walk away.

  Next thing I knew, she was screaming.

  Looking up, I saw that she had been attacked by a strange vine. Its thick tendrils had wrapped themselves around her. Weird orange pods were creeping toward her, making a sucking sound as they approached.

  Linnsy struck at them. They flinched, drawing back some two or three feet. But at the same time one of them spit a wad of steaming purple fluid that just missed her face.

  Before I could think of what to do, I heard a cry of rage from Tim. He ran toward the vine, brandishing a piece of metal. I realized he must have wrenched it from the wreckage of the ship.

  “Stop it!” he screamed, hacking at the vine. “Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!”

  Gouts of purple fluid burst out wherever he struck the vine. It writhed as he hacked at it, and the orange pods were squealing as they backed away, a horrible, high-pitched scream that was like needles in my ears. Three of the pods spit clots of the steaming purple fluid. Two missed, but one struck Tim’s arm. He screamed in agony but seemed to gain strength from his pain. Slashing and hacking, he attacked the vine with new fury.

  Suddenly the thick tendrils unwrapped themselves from Linnsy’s legs and slid into the ground, disappearing so rapidly that it was as if they had never been there.

  Tim staggered over to Linnsy, clutching his arm where the plantspit had hit it. “You okay?” he asked grimly.

  “Yeah,” she said, though she was trembling. “And you?”

  “Not sure. I never did anything like that before. Man, this hurts!”

  As he said this, he moved his hand. Pleskit and I moved in closer to get a look. The plantspit had seared a long mark across his arm—a mark that was already beginning to blister.

  “I don’t like the look of that,” said Pleskit. Then he took Tim’s hand and said, “That was well done. I am ashamed I did not help. The truth is, Earthlings are much more geared to action than we are. Our studies indicate that this is the source of many of your problems. But it certainly comes in useful in a situation like this!”

  “You’re not kidding,” said Linnsy, who was still shaking. “I thought I was done for. Thanks, pal.”

  “I think it was all those episodes of Tarbox Moon Warriors I’ve watched kicking in,” said Tim shyly.

  I heard a noise behind me. Turning, I saw that Ellico vec Bur had gotten to their feet. Cursing, one arm tucked close to their side, they staggered back toward the ship.

  “What are they doing?” asked Pleskit in concern as the veccir climbed the ramp. “Aren’t they afraid it’s going to blow up?”

  “Who cares?” I said. “This is our chance to get away from them!”

  “Why should we do that?” asked Linnsy. “They’re the only ones who might know where we are!”

  “They’re also dangerous villains! Who knows what they might do to us next? We pulled them out of the ship, got them to safety. If they want to go back in, that’s their problem!”

  “We don’t really know that they’re villains,” said Tim. “From the way they reacted when they found out we were on board, it doesn’t seem like they took off with us on purpose.”

  “All right,” I said angrily. “You stay here and be nice. I’m leaving!”

  “Where are you going?” asked Pleskit.

  “I saw a city on the way down. We should head for that. We’ll probably be able to find an embassy there. If we do, they’ll contact your Fatherly One for us.”

  “Do you have any idea how to get there?” asked Linnsy, with more skepticism than I thought was justified.

  “As a matter of fact, I do,” I replied, trying not to sound as smug as I felt. “It was ahead of us as we were coming down. So was the sun. Therefore, if we walk toward the sun, we will be walking toward the city!”

  “We’ll have to go through the jungle,” said Tim nervously.

  “Would you prefer to stay here with Ellico vec Bur?” I asked.

  Tim looked confused.

  “I think we should go with Maktel,” said Pleskit, which annoyed me a little, since he wasn’t really saying he thought I was right, just that we should stick together.

  Though they sounded reluctant, Tim and Linnsy agreed. So we aimed ourselves at the sun, which was blue, and began walking.

  “This is so cool,” said Tim as we made our way among the trees. They were as thick across as I am tall, and soared so high that we couldn’t see their tops. “It’s just the kind of place I always dreamed of visiting when I was watching Tarbox Moon Warriors,” he continued. “Man, look at those flowers! At least, I think they’re flowers….”

  The things he was pointing to were a blazing red and as large as my head. They were lovely, and their scent was compelling. But given our first experience with the flora of this planet, I was not interested in picking one. I was afraid it might try to eat my face or something.

  In fact, we were all terrified of encountering another of the vicious vines. So we moved with extreme caution.

  We had been walking for about a kerbleck when something began buzzing around my head.

  “These are the weirdest insects I ever saw,” complained Linnsy. I saw that she was surrounded by a cloud of the same creatures, which were about the size of my thumb.

  “Actually, I don’t think they’re insects,” said Tim. “How can an insect have fur? They’re more like hairy hummingbirds.”

  “You cannot expect to find exactly the same kind of animal classifications here that you did on Earth,” I sa
id impatiently.

  Pushing aside a wall of feathery stems, I stepped forward, bumped into something, and started to scream.

  CHAPTER 8 [TIM]

  EARGON FOOZ

  I wasn’t sure about Maktel’s idea that we should get away from Ellico vec Bur and head for the city, but I was so distracted by the pain in my arm where the plant had spit on me that I couldn’t think of anything better to suggest. The spot that had been burned by the plantspit had never stopped hurting. Now, as we stumbled through the jungle, constantly checking the sun (when we could see it) to be sure we were heading in the right direction, my arm began to throb worse than ever.

  Then the “hairy hummingbirds” began buzzing around us. When I raised my arm to swat them away, I saw green streaks stretching across my skin, radiating out from the spot where the plant had burned me.

  I felt a sickening lurch in my stomach. Was this some weird alien infection?

  I wondered in horror if I was going to turn into a plant.

  Before I could say anything, Maktel began to scream.

  Looking up, I squawked myself.

  Rising directly ahead of us was a yellow wall of fernlike plants, about eight feet high. Maktel had pushed aside some of the plants to step through. This action had brought him face-to-face with a creature that had been coming from the other direction.

  Well, not quite face-to-face. It was more like face-to-belly, since the creature was quite a bit taller than Maktel. It had four legs, which wouldn’t have been that unusual (from an Earthling point of view) except that it also had two arms, with well-developed hands attached.

  The creature’s skin was slick and smooth, almost like vinyl. I can’t tell you what color it was, since it had a lot of colors. Not only that but the colors tended to move and shift.

  “It’s camouflaging itself,” whispered Linnsy in awe.

  “You’re right!” I replied, watching in fascination. The creature was changing color the way a chameleon does, except that these color changes were far faster and vastly more complex, picking up the look of the jungle around us in great detail—the purple tree bark, the bright green leaves with their thick yellow veins, the brown and purple pods that hung from the trees, and the way the light coming through the trees made shades and shadows from all of that.

  The creature’s hindquarters looked like those of a small horse. In front the arms came out at about shoulder level. They were attached to a long neck—about half again as long as a horse of the same size would have had. At the end of the neck was a strange and beautiful face. Again, the face was somewhat horselike, but broader, so that there was room for all four eyes—two that looked straight ahead, two that watched to the sides. Four pointed ears moved constantly, as if checking in all directions.

  We had clearly startled the creature as much as it had startled us, for it stumbled back, putting a hand to its mouth and making a little cry of alarm.

  Pleskit immediately spread his arms and held his hands open. Maktel, once he stopped screaming, repeated the gesture. It took me a moment to realize that this was a way of indicating that they had no weapons and meant no harm. I imitated the gesture. At a little nudge from my outstretched right hand, so did Linnsy.

  “Ikbu?” said Pleskit quietly.

  “Ikbu,” responded the creature.

  I glanced down, and was amused to see that the Veeblax was working on doing an imitation of the creature. It wasn’t bad for a first try.

  Pleskit began to babble at our new acquaintance in a language I had never heard him use before. (I had heard enough Hevi-Hevian to realize this was not it.)

  The creature babbled back. After a moment Pleskit turned to me and Linnsy and said, “Her name is Eargon Fooz, and she is willing to help us on our journey.”

  “I don’t know,” said Maktel darkly. “Do you think we should trust her?”

  I was sick of him being so suspicious. I could tell Pleskit and Linnsy were too.

  Only, I was the one who said it out loud.

  “I will be glad to step blindly into this potential trap if you will give me one reason we should trust this being,” Maktel replied sharply.

  I didn’t have any, of course; the best I could come up with was “Give me one reason we should distrust her.”

  Pleskit said, “According to Wakkam Akkim, many choices in life are finally decided by whether you think the universe is basically good or basically out to get you.”

  “According to the Motherly One,” responded Maktel, “blind trust is the mark of a fool.”

  Eargon Fooz was watching this conversation in puzzlement.

  As it worked out, I was the one who settled the matter. I did not do this by making a brilliant point. I did it by putting out my hand to get Pleskit’s attention, which caused Linnsy to shout, “Tim, look at your arm!”

  I did, and nearly fainted. The green streaks were starting to thicken and enlarge like the veins on my grandmother’s legs.

  Eargon Fooz made an alarming noise, then ran off a string of words I can’t begin to repeat.

  Pleskit looked alarmed. “She says your arm needs to be treated immediately. We have to go to her village.”

  “How do we know she’s not just making that up?” demanded Maktel. “Who knows what might happen if we go to her village? We don’t even know if she represents the civilized species on this planet. We might be attacked, beaten, robbed, served for dinner—”

  “Oh, stop!” said Pleskit sharply.

  I was feeling light-headed with fear at what was happening to me, but not so light-headed that I didn’t have time to also feel annoyed at Maktel for making things so much more frightening.

  Then I wondered if he was right to be suspicious and I was the stupid one for being so trusting.

  Eargon Fooz turned to face him, speaking to him again in that strange language.

  Maktel began to back away, babbling something I could not understand.

  He was still babbling when Eargon Fooz leaped forward and snatched him off the ground.

  CHAPTER 9 [PLESKIT]

  JUNGLE JOURNEY

  “Let me go!” shouted Maktel. “LET ME GO!”

  Eargon Fooz had Maktel’s arms pinned to his sides, but my friend was flailing his legs wildly, and landed a couple of solid kicks against her chest. As he did, a vine shot out of the ground, reaching for his foot. Eargon Fooz spun him away, and it missed.

  Maktel stopped kicking and stared at the vine in horror.

  “The plant you were backing toward is very dangerous,” said Eargon Fooz quietly as she set Maktel gently on the ground a safe distance from the killer vine. “It would have melted off your feet if it had caught you.”

  Maktel can be very suspicious. But he is also gracious, which is one of the things I like about him. Crossing his hands over his chest, he bowed his head and said humbly, “I am in your service.”

  “Service is not required,” said Eargon Fooz. “However, a little less noise would be appreciated.

  “What are they saying?” asked Tim, who was standing next to me.

  I translated, realizing I was going to be doing a lot of that as long as we were with Eargon Fooz—or anywhere on this planet, for that matter.

  “How come you speak her language?” asked Linnsy.

  “Well, it’s not really her language,” I said. “We’ve been speaking in Standard Galactic.”

  Linnsy looked puzzled. “Is that different from Hevi-Hevian?”

  “Yes. Most planets have their own language. But everyone who is part of the Unified Galaxy also learns Standard Galactic from the time yeeble is little. After all, it’s very hard to have a unified civilization when you are splintered by separate languages.”

  “Let us begin our journey,” said Eargon Fooz. “We can talk as we travel. I do not want to delay getting treatment for your friend.”

  I translated most of this for Linnsy and Tim, leaving out the last part for fear of alarming Tim unnecessarily. We started out. The Veeblax rode on my shoulder, and I
was so concerned about the vicious plants that I considered trying to figure out some way to bind my pet to me so it would not scamper off on an exploration and get eaten. But for reasons that should be obvious, it is hard to tie down a shape-shifter.

  I noticed Tim continually cupping his hand over the oog-slama and hoped, for both their sakes, that this adventure would not prevent the thing from maturing.

  * * *

  Our path led us through amazing and beautiful territory. We walked, for a time, along the edge of a cliff, with a sheer drop of hundreds of feet to our right. This gave us a clear view of the city that was our goal. Its spires and towers reared high in the lavender sky. The clear, unpolluted air above it indicated that the people were civilized, and I began to feel that Maktel had been right to insist we head for it. If we could make it there safely, we could get medical treatment for Tim’s arm. Once that was taken care of, we could almost certainly find an embassy where my diplomatic identification would be recognized. Then our problems would be over.

  As we traveled, Eargon Fooz told me that the planet we were on was called Billa Kindikan, at least by her people. “It means ‘beautiful world,’ ” she said proudly.

  She didn’t want to talk much about her tribe; I got the feeling her people weren’t crazy about off-worlders. I wondered if they had had a bad experience with Traders.

  “Is the planet part of the Federation?” I asked.

  “We have been invited to join but have chosen not to,” she replied.

  After a while the path led back into deep jungle. The smells here were so rich and varied they almost made me dizzy. Brightly colored birds—or, at least, creatures with wings—flitted among the branches. Distant growls made us nervous, though Eargon Fooz laughed and told us not to worry about them.

  “Easy for her to say,” muttered Maktel.

  Though we saw some flowers, most of the plants had pods instead—some round, some cone shaped, some bursting with spikes. They were mostly shades of yellow, sometimes blending toward green, sometimes toward brown, sometimes with a streak or cap of purple. Given what we had already been through, the sight of so many pods made us all nervous, wondering which of them might be fatally dangerous.