Palm Springs Eternal -- Part Three

Before long the moving roadway brought the landrover to a white wall surrounding Leneopolis. Demi guessed it to be roughly thirty meters in height. A gate built into the wall slid open as the rover approached, and the rover was allowed to pass through. The cityscape around and below the roadway disappeared and was replaced by a gentle grassland with white flowers and small, swaying trees. Then, slowly, the flowers and trees disappeared. The sky became more green than blue and eventually even the grass was gone. There was only broken ground and stone. The mountains Rie had spoken of could be seen rising over the horizon. And still the roadway ran on.

As the afternoon waned the rover came to rest on a platform at the road's end. Everyone disembarked and looked around. They saw that they were actually on a giant elevator that, when lowered, would place their rover gently upon the ground in front of the mountains. A small dome building was on the top of the elevator. A man stepped out of it and came over to them.

"Hello there," he said. He wore a blue carbonsuit like Rie's except it had short sleeves. The man also wore a small blue cap with a wheel logo and some lettering. He was young, about Dahl's age, and he looked dirty, as if he had just been working on something oily. He had dark skin and greasy dark hair. "I'm Paulsen, Roadway Chief Technician," he said. "Y'all are the folks from Algo, right?"

Demi nodded. "That's right."

Paulsen nodded. "Wow, it sure is an honor to meet you! Councilman Rie contacted me and told me to be expecting you. Normally no one's allowed down there." He thumbed over his shoulder at the ground, for emphasis. "But the Councilman tells me that you're going into Landian territory. I can't imagine what you're hoping to find there, but here we go anyway."

Paulsen stepped back into the small dome structure. Through windows in the front of the building, Dahl could see him flicking switches and then pulling a long lever. The platform lurched and began to descend slowly. Paulsen stayed inside the little house, reading data coming up on a monitor.

"Rie said there's a pass through the mountains," Dahl said. "I don't see it."

Mium stepped up to the western edge of the platform and scanned the vista. The others all looked off into other directions. After a few moments Mium called, "I see it! It's about half a kilometer in this direction. It's narrow, but wide enough for our rover."

Demi and Dahl went to stand beside Mium. "Yes, I see it, too," Demi said. "Everyone, get back inside. If possible, I want to reach that farmhouse before dark."

"You sure we should go there, Demi?" Dahl asked. "Aermel shouldn't know about any farmhouses in Landian territory. I can't shake the feeling that it's a trap."

"Who would set a trap for us?" Demi asked, shaking her head.

"But how would Aermel know?" Dahl said. "New Palmans can't visit Landian territory!"

"Are you saying that Aermel is Dark Force, Dahl? I don't think so. Everyone in the city knew him. I doubt Dark Force could brainwash an entire town like that."

"I'm not saying he's Dark Force. But something is definitely weird."

"I know that. This entire thing is weird! Here we are on an alien planet, searching for a monster that should have been dead for two thousand years already. The oddness of the situation is apparent to me. The fact that Aermel knows something about Landian territory does not greatly compound things in my mind."

Dahl sighed and shrugged. "Whatever. After all, you are the captain." She trudged back over to the landrover and got inside.

"Demi, don't you think that maybe Dahl has a point?" Mium asked.

"I can't imagine why Aermel would want to trap us when he was so helpful before," Demi muttered. "And trap us for what purpose?"

"Maybe Brother doesn't want the competition."

"But we told them all that Mother Brain is dead."

"Demi..." Mium whispered. "What if that competition isn't Mother Brain? What if it's you? Now hear me out! You told them you serve the Protector of Algo -- Mother Brain's replacement!"

"But I told them that we are nobody's masters!"

"I know what you told them. But maybe they still don't quite trust us. After all...why should they? We're strangers from a possibly hostile system who claim to be hunting a deadly fugitive. What would you have thought if a New Palman showed up at Zelan with the same story?"

Demi closed her eyes and nodded. "You're right, Mium. I see your point. But I would never trick a potential friend into a snare. And I don't think the New Palmans would do that, either. Rie has been too kind to us. I trust him."

"So do I. But we trusted Favia, too."

Demi sighed. "I know. But we spent almost two days with Rie and the others, and I never felt at all uneasy with them. I cannot believe that they mean us any harm."

Mium patted Demi on the shoulder. "Hopefully you're right. And if it's any consolation, I agree. But anyway, let's be off now. The sun's getting low. And more importantly, we've landed."

The mountain pass was a crack that ran straight through a low bluff between two larger mountains. It was a very clean cleave, as if a titan had jammed a chisel into the rock and split it right down the middle.

The sun was very low in the sky by that point, meaning that the space between the cliffs was as dark as night. Those inside the landrover could see nothing but solid black on all sides. The only break in the darkness was directly above, where the sky was deep blue with the last light of the evening. And then there was the glow from the rover's headlight, a glowing band that stretched from the vehicle's right hand door to the left. It cast a strong light, much stronger than Demi's Flare unit, but it was largely insufficient within the passage. The myriad crags within cast shadow over shadow upon the path the rover had to travel. Demi and Mium were hard pressed to keep the car from impaling itself on one of the spikes, an impediment that would have left them all stranded.

"This is a horrible place!" Azur said. She was curled up in the center of the middle row of seats, pressed tightly against her sister. The rover windshield was large, taking up nearly the entire front of the vehicle, and there was no way to cover it. So to Azur it looked like she and her friends were openly exposed to whatever might be lurking just ahead of them in the total darkness.

Dahl put an arm around her sister's shoulders. "Don't sweat it, Az," she said. "We haven't seen a single animal since we left the grasslands around Leneopolis. There's nothing out here to 'get you.'"

"But Rie went on and on about how this area is so dangerous."

Erol was sitting behind the twins. He leaned forward and squeezed Azur's shoulder. "But he gave us this landrover," Erol said. "He said it would protect us."

"And you've got the best driver this side of Do-Na-Kri, if I do say so myself," Mium added.

"Why thank you, Mium!" Demi said. "I never knew you thought so highly of me!"

Everyone shared a laugh, but only briefly. Elm made a sudden slicing motion with his hand and everyone was quiet.

"What was that for?" Erol asked, in a whisper.

"I heard something," Elm said. His long, tufted ears were standing nearly straight up.

"What do you mean?" Azur asked. "Elm, that's not funny! Don't play so much."

"I'm not playing," Elm said, now whispering himself. "I think...there is something on the roof."

Dahl's ears perked up as well. "Oh boy. Elm, I think you're right. I hear...shuffling. Scraping..."

Azur sat up and listened. "I still don't hear it," she said through pursed lips.

"That's really strange, then," said Erol. "Because now, even I do."

"What should we do?" Mium asked Demi.

Demi bit her lip. "Kill inside lights."

Mium reached for the dashboard and flicked a little switch. At once, all light was gone except for the illumination of the headlights.

"I swear to God I'm going to scream!" Azur said in a near-squeal.

Dahl pulled her sister close and roughly clamped a hand over Azur's mouth. Erol and Elm both got out of their seats and onto the floor behind Dahl and Azur's chairs. Erol reached out again, but this time it was Dahl's shoulder that he held. Dahl reached back and took his hand.

"Do you still hear it?" Demi asked.

Silence for a few seconds. Then Elm whispered, "No."

A face appeared suddenly, its wide eyes staring out from the darkness through the great windshield.

Azur screamed. Demi clenched her jaw and spun the steering wheel wildly. The landrover twirled several times, crashing into and shattering a few upthrust crags. The figure clinging to the windshield vanished back into the darkness. The rover righted itself and began to speed away. When all was quiet again, the interloper was gone.

"Oh my God, what was that?" Azur asked, nearly in tears. "That scared the absolute Hell out of me!"

"It was somebody holding onto the roof and looking down in through the glass," Dahl said. "But who would be in a place like this so late at night?"

"The Landians..." Elm said the name quietly, as if it were a curse. "Perhaps they keep guard over the entrance to their realm."

"What are you guys talking about?" Mium asked. "That wasn't a Palman face at all. It was some kind of weird monkey or something."

"Now I'm confused," Erol added. "I thought it looked more like a big lizard."

Demi pressed her foot harder on the accelerator. "I don't care what it was," she said. "Let's just get out of here!"

Back in the shadows, something licked its wounded hand and scurried hurriedly away.

At the speed Demi had forced the rover to go, it only took a few more minutes before the mountain pass was left far behind and a bleak prairie stretched on ahead. There was nothing but dust until the horizon. In all directions the land was totally flat and without features of any kind, save for the mountains they had come through. Two small moons, both colored a pale blue, dimly lit the landscape. There were also uncountable stars, free to dance in their full luster since the rover had traveled dozens of kilometers from the nearest city lights.

There were two small round windows on either side of the rover. Dahl rolled down the window beside her seat and let the soothingly cool night breeze filter in.

"Will you look at this?" she said. "This must be what Mota was like before Mother Brain came. There is nothing but calm desert stretching out forever and ever. It's so peaceful. It's beautiful."

Elm leaned forward and put his face close to Dahl's window. He took a deep breath and smiled. "Yeah. This planet is a little cold for me, but compared to Dezo it's pretty comfy! But you're right, Dahl. The Dorini Desert southeast of Zema is probably the only place on Mota that is still this...authentic."

"That's where you grew up, isn't it?" Erol asked.

Elm nodded. "Yep. It's so beautiful there. At night our clan would set up camp near an oasis or one of our wells. My brother and sister and I would go for long walks around the water. We would lay on our backs in the sand and just watch the stars. Sometimes the other kids would come tease me because of my dark fur. But when they did, my brother and sister would get up and splash them until they ran away."

Azur smiled. She reached over her chair and scratched between Elm's ears. "Oh, poor little Elm," she said, which made Dahl chuckle.

"It's been a long time since you've been home, hasn't it?" Erol asked.

Elm nodded. "Yes. Except for one short visit, it's been almost twenty years." He closed his eyes and settled back into his seat, his beak stretched into a wide, contented grin. He snuggled down into his robes and said, "But being in this place makes me want to go home again. Thanks, guys. I'm glad I could be here with all of you."

Dahl patted him on the knee. "You're very welcome, Elm."

"Demi, what's that?" Mium whispered. She pointed off into the distance.

Demi squinted and peered deep into the night ahead of them. "It looks like some kind of light. The farmhouse!"

The others took notice and looked toward what Mium was pointing at. "What is it?" Dahl asked. "Are we almost there?"

"It looks like it," Demi said. "There's a small cabin on the horizon. If you look closely you should be able to see the lights from inside."

"Oh, I see it!" Azur shouted excitedly.

"I wonder what it's made out of," Elm said. "There's no timber around here."

"Who cares what it's made out of?" Erol said. "I can't wait to get out of this car and stretch my legs."

"Indeed," Mium said. "My diodes haven't been this stiff since the last time I came out of stasis."

Demi laughed aloud. "Oh yes. I'll never forget how you fell out of that box and right on your face! Ha!"

Mium blushed, an action which the others had never before seen her do. In fact, they were unaware she even could do it.

Azur chuckled. "At least you didn't scream like a little girl when that whatever-it-was popped in for a visit a while ago."

Mium laughed, too. "You realize, Azur, that I'm never going to let you live that one down, right?"

Azur sighed, but she was smiling. "Yeah. I realize."

Mium brought the rover's internal lights back on. "So what should we do now?" she asked. "Aermel said these people are friendly. But if they're Landians, will they even want to talk to us?"

"Rie said Landians sometimes call out to New Palmans," Azur noted. "If the people in the house think we're New Palmans, maybe they'll even be hospitable!"

"We'll see," Demi said.

A few minutes later the rover came to a stop outside the farmhouse. It was a simple structure made from stone and very old wood. It stood at two stories, was box-like, and had a triangular roof. Warm light poured out from the single window at the center of the upper story. The house was hemmed in by a natural wall of rock in the shape of a quarter-circle. Demi could see some squat trees on the other side of the wall. She noticed that the house lay on the border between the wasteland and a rocky territory peppered by small shrubs and weeds. But the nearly total darkness had kept the new landscape hidden until the rover was practically upon it.

"I'll approach first," Demi said. "The rest of you wait in the rover until you see my signal."

Demi stepped out into the open. Slowly she moved toward the house. As she got closer she could hear some commotion upstairs, and then lights came on inside the house's lower level. Demi was only a few meters from the door when it swung open. A giant of a man was in the doorway, casting Demi's diminutive self into shadow. He wore a wide-brimmed leather hat like some of the old-time Hunters had. There was an aura of raw power coming from the man, like what Demi had felt when she'd come face to face with a Locusta. But she could not clearly see the face of this man. The light behind him was so bright and the darkness outside was so deep that all Demi could see was his black outline.

A shotgun was under his arm. The barrel was leveled at Demi's head.

"Who goes there?" the man asked. He had a raspy, deep voice.

"Greetings, sir," Demi said. "My name is Demi."

A woman, smaller than the man but also large and conveying the same sense of power, appeared in the doorway.

"My companions and I have come seeking a highly dangerous criminal who escaped from us," Demi continued.

The woman grabbed the man's arm. "The lights in the sky...!"

"The person we seek came to this area aboard a spacecraft," said Demi. "The lights you saw, ma'am, were likely from his vessel."

"You from the new city?" the man asked.

"Do you mean Leneopolis?" Demi inquired.

The man nodded.

Demi did, too. "We have come from that direction, but we are not of that city."

"Then where are you of?" the woman asked.

Demi took a deep breath. "My companions and I come from Algo, a star very far from here. Have you heard of it?"

The man and woman looked at each other. "Of course we've heard of it," the man said. He shifted his weight. "Step closer, into the light."

Demi took a cautious step forward; the mechanical plates on her face and body sparkled in the light from the open window. At the sight of Demi the woman gasped. The man lowered his weapon.

"Why didn't you tell us what you were?" the man asked. "Come on in! The mechanical ones have always been good to my people. Your kind is always welcome here!"

"What about my friends?" Demi asked. "May they come inside as well?"

The man looked past Demi, at the rover. He scratched his chin and said, "They aren't like you. I see Palmans in there. And -- my God -- is that a Motavian?"

Demi nodded. "Yes. I hope we haven't startled you too badly. I know it is very late, but we were told--"

"Please, all of you, come in!" the woman said, stepping back inside. "Alec, you make sure they all come in!"

The man, Alec, nodded. "All right, all right. I will."

Demi looked back at the rover and waved.

"She's smiling," Mium said. "It must have gone over all right."

"Fantastic!" Azur said. "I hope they've got something to eat. I am totally starving!"

Erol laughed. "What happened to feeling self-conscious about pigging out?"

"Are you serious?" Dahl asked. "You've obviously never seen her on a diet."