Fire and Darkness . . .
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I loved the predictions that Elmira made for the crew, and when I last
watched “Spung at Heart,” it occurred to me that Radu’s prediction
had never come to pass. So I decided to remedy that problem:
"Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Harlan asked for possibly
the hundredth time. He and Radu were peering anxiously over Suzee’s
shoulder as she worked on a console.
“Yes!” she snapped finally. “I know what I’m doing! Stop
worrying so much!”
As Harlan flung another sarcastic remark at her and they continued to argue
in voices growing steadily louder, neither noticed Radu trying to get their
attention. Finally, in desperation, he grabbed Harlan by the back of the
jacket and lifted him off his feet. “Harlan, would you listen
to me? In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a moon dead ahead!”
A greenish glow was filling the screen.
Harlan ran to the helm, and through the combined efforts of all three kids
they managed to slip past the moon with only a few feet to spare. Even a
human could have heard the sigh of relief that passed through the room as
the Christa continued on its way.
The small green hexagonal shuttle broke loose from its orbit around the moon
and approached the Christa. Finally, thought the pilot, something
exciting to tell everyone back home about. I’ve never seen that style
of ship before. What if it belongs to an unknown life form? If I bring back
information on an alien life form, I’ll be a hero! Now, how did those
docking commands go again?
He took a deep breath as he approached the doors of the ship’s landing
bay. There would obviously be some kind of lock on it - how would he get
inside? Suddenly, his eyes widened in astonishment as the doors began to
open automatically. This ship must use the same technology as the
killcruisers, he thought in wonder as he landed his craft and cautiously
stepped out.
In the lounge, Radu and Harlan were playing a peaceful game of Minbar Chess.
Or, at least, one side of the board was peaceful. Even the most casual viewer
would have been able to tell that Harlan was upset about something. Each
time he put a piece down, it was with such intensity that it seemed his intention
was to eventually force the entire set of chess pieces through the board.
Suddenly, he slammed his hand down on the table - so violently that the pieces
jumped several inches into the air before settling back on the board. “Why
did you have to go and tattle on us? Look, I missed the moon - we’re
fine! The commander doesn’t need to know every little thing that
happens!”
“We’re supposed to report anything unusual that happens while
we’re on watch,” Radu said, forcing himself to keep his voice steady.
Even though he and Harlan were friends now, he didn’t think he’d
ever get used to the human’s sudden flashes of temper.
“Yeah, sure. But because you couldn’t keep your mouth shut, I have
dish duty for the next two weeks! That’ll be just loads of fun.
You try cleaning Bova’s plates three times a day!”
“Well, that’s not my fault,” Radu said quietly. “You
were the one that was supposed to be on watch, not me.”
“That’s it!” Harlan yelled, sweeping a hand across the board
and knocking several pieces to the ground as he stood. “I’m not
gonna listen to one more word out of your mouth, Andromedan!” He stormed
off and was down the jumptubes almost before he finished the sentence, leaving
Radu alone with his thoughts . . .
This is incredible! Mavros, the young Spung, thought as he examined
the texture of the corridor wall. I’ve never seen technology like
this before. As a feeling suddenly came over him that he was being watched,
he stopped instantly and peered anxiously over his shoulder, scanning all
the visible space up and down the corridor. It wouldn’t do to have the
crew of this ship stumble upon him examining their mechanics and technology.
For the third or fourth time, Mavros pictured the reaction when he returned
to his killcruiser with the information about this strange new race - his
mother would be so proud of him! Of course, unless his discoveries meant
that he would magically become the perfectly behaved young male Spung, whatever
wonderful things he brought home would make no impression on his mother’s
new husband. He considered Mavros only a child, despite the fact that
he was fully grown and ready to gain adult status. According to him,
Mavros was nothing but a trouble-maker, someone who needed to “practice
the fine arts of discipline and self-control.” He constantly lectured
him on the ethics of proper behavior.
As he approached another of the portals he had seen on various walls throughout
this ship, he decided, on a whim, to see where the shaft that went deep into
the ship’s wall would take him. Climbing in, he was off with a whoosh
of air . . .
Harlan jumped to his feet at the sound of the tubes. Probably Radu coming
to apologize, he thought. He’d been sulking in the engine room for
almost an hour by now, waiting for the Andromedan to come and make excuses
for tattling. He prepared himself to graciously accept a groveling apology,
but as he saw the newcomer, his eyes widened in shock. The body tumbling
out of the tubes certainly didn’t belong to Radu. It was a Spung!
When the Spung saw him, he seemed as startled as Harlan felt. He turned as
if to run back to the jumptubes and safety, but the instant before he stepped
into the exit tube, everything suddenly went black.
“This should do it . . . ” Suzee murmured. She was still in the
command post. If she was right, these adjustments should make the ship almost
ten times more efficient, allowing them to cut way back on the number of
fuel stops they’d have to make. “If I just tighten this a
little bit . . . ” Suddenly, the lights went out. “Well,
that worked well,” she muttered sarcastically.
A quick diagnostics check revealed that her work had caused a spark which
went directly to the main engines. The doors and jumptubes were powered down
in the “locked” position, meaning that the crew would have to stay
where they were until Suzee was able to get the power back up. The whole
ship had essentially shut down, except for the barest of life-support systems.
She just hoped that no serious damage had been sustained - with sparks flowing
freely around the ship, their situation could get a lot worse than just being
trapped alone in a dark room.
“Wait,” Harlan said, trying desperately to keep his voice on an
even keel. “Come back over here.” He didn’t relish the thought
of being alone in a dark room with a Spung, but he didn’t think it was
a brilliant idea to let him have free reign of the ship. And anyone who tried
to run when they first laid eyes on you probably was not a major threat -
at least, that’s what he hoped.
As he felt a body settle on the ground beside him, Harlan attempted to keep
things light. “So,” he said, groping for something, anything, that
could be a conversation topic, “what’s your name?”
“Mavros,” the Spung said bluntly.
“Uhh . . . okay.” That wasn’t much of a conversation,
he thought. Better try something else! “Uh, why were you on our
ship?” Realizing quickly that a sentence like that might put the Spung
on the defensive instead of keeping him calm, he added hurriedly, “Just
wondering.”
“I am on my mission of manhood.”
“And that is . . . ”
With a note of impatience in his voice, Mavros explained. “To prove
that I am worthy of becoming a member of adult society, I must spend one
year in space alone. I hope that I can do it . . . my mother’s husband
would have to acknowledge me once I was no longer a child.”
With a shock, Harlan realized that this “terrible Spung” was just
another kid! Remembering his own stepfather, he asked carefully, “What
. . . he doesn’t acknowledge you now?”
“No. To him, I am only a rebel, unworthy of gaining adult status. I
wish my true father were still alive - he was killed during the war with
the United Populated Planets . . . ”
Harlan was glad that Mavros couldn’t see his face. He’d never
considered the fact that there were Spung kids that had lost their parents
in the war . . . Maybe this kid isn’t so bad after all, he thought
as Mavros continued his narrative.
Both of them were so involved in the tale the Spung was telling that neither
noticed the small flicker of light in the engines, growing brighter every
second . . .
This whole thing was my fault! Radu thought. Alone in a dark corridor
. . . what else was there for him to do but think? Since he’d had the
argument with Harlan that morning, he’d been angry with himself. He
was right . . . I shouldn’t have been criticizing him. He did get us
away from the moon without any real damage.
As a voice broke the silence, he jerked in surprise, but relaxed quickly
as he realized it was only Rosie, on the other side of the deck.
“Radu,” she said, “come down to the command post with me.
The commander wants us all down there so he can try and figure out what made
the power shut down.” With a shrug, he headed toward the sound of her
voice.
Mavros stopped his narrative suddenly as the human let out a sigh.
“What?” he asked, wondering whether something he said had offended
him.
“Nothing,” the human said quietly. “It’s just that .
. . well, I’ve kinda got the same problem. See, my dad was . . . killed
in the war, too.” Mavros was shocked. It had never occurred to him that
UPP soldiers killed in the war might have left children behind. “And
- my mom married another guy a few years later. The same kind of guy you’re
describing . . . he thinks I’m just a goof-off and that I’ll never
have what it takes to become a military man.”
Mavros sat listening silently, fascinated. He had never thought of humans
as creatures with families and emotions like the Spung. He had always pictured
them as creatures more like the Andromedans. Faceless hordes of cruel, idiotic
beasts, unable to think for themselves, too stupid to do anything but follow
orders. This Harlanband was proving quite different from the impressions
of humans Mavros had held before - he was intelligent and seemed quite friendly.
Perhaps humans were not all that bad after all . . .
Listening to himself, Harlan was surprised. He had trouble talking about
this stuff with people who he saw every day, but he could tell someone who
he’d met ten minutes ago his entire life story? This was definitely
weird.
Suddenly, he stopped in mid-sentence as something exploded with a whoosh.
Turning quickly, he saw the beginnings of a small blaze in the engines, producing
great quantities of smoke and a steadily increasing pillar of flame. He heard
Mavros throwing himself against the door, trying to force it open. But he
realized with a shock that it must have locked. With his heart in his throat,
Harlan realized in horror that they only had a few minutes left . . .
“Okay, Suzee,” the commander was saying, “repeat the steps
you had taken when the power surge occurred.”
“Well, I had this bolt off, because I needed to connect to the main
power cable, and I tightened this cord . . . and then everything short-circuited.
Whatever sparked must have been pretty big to set off a reaction like that
. . . ”
Radu was only half-listening to the conversation - there was another small
noise that kept slipping into his consciousness, no matter how hard he
concentrated on screening it out. It wasn’t an unfamiliar sound. He’d
heard it somewhere before . . . but where? In a flash, it came to him.
“Commander?” he said suddenly, interrupting Suzee in mid-sentence,
“Could there be some kind of - danger to the ship from whatever caused
all this?”
The commander looked expectantly at Suzee, who seemed very uncomfortable
all of a sudden. “Well,” she said hesitatingly, “I
think that the spark that caused the power outage might have gone
on to the engine and smoldered for a while. So I guess that there’s
a slight chance that eventually, something could blow and cause a fire. Nothing
major, though - unless, of course, you happened to be in the room at the
time.”
“Thanks,” Radu said hastily as he headed for the door.
Out in the corridor, he hurriedly took an extinguisher from the storage closet
and headed toward the engine room. It’s not going to be any big
deal, he told himself. Suzee said that it wouldn’t be dangerous
unless you were in the room. And everyone was in the command post . . .
But he couldn’t get rid of a nagging feeling in the back of his mind
that he was forgetting something.
In a flash, he remembered his argument with Harlan. He had heard the human
come out in the corridor and run into the commander, who took one look at
him and said, “Mr. Band, why don’t you go somewhere and cool
off.” And Harlan had said . . . Radu’s heart leapt into his throat.
He had said, “Fine. I’ll be in the engine room if anyone needs
me!”
As he reached the door, the sound which had been steadily increasing now
blocked out everything else, and when he entered, he knew exactly what he
was going to see. But when the door opened, he was surprised at how little
flame there was - although smoke filled the room, the blaze seemed to have
barely started. Briskly, he sprayed the entire contents of the extinguisher
on the fire - better safe than sorry.
Radu knew he needed to get Harlan out of there fast. Rosie had said
that in a fire, you could be dead from smoke before the flames even reached
you.
After only a few seconds, he found the limp form by the jumptubes. He was
still breathing - barely. As Radu picked him up and slung him over his shoulder,
something caught his eye . . . and when he turned, his mouth fell open in
shock. A Spung!
He lay Harlan in the corridor and was preparing to slide the door back into
the locked position, leaving the Spung to suffocate. But as he prepared to
seal the young lizard-creature in his grim resting place, he suddenly stopped
himself.
No, he thought. This wasn’t his fault. And I can’t do
this . . . not even to a Spung. He’s just a kid - he deserves another
shot. Almost unconsciously, he slipped inside and gently picked up the
limp body, bringing him out of the room that would have become his mausoleum.
As Mavros slowly drifted back to consciousness, he was shocked to realize
that he was still alive. The last thing he remembered was being trapped in
the fiery control room . . . with a start, he realized that another crew
member must have rescued them. He saw the rest of the crew standing nearby,
along with Harlanband, who was already awake.
Standing, he tried desperately to remain proper. “My eternal thanks
to whichever of you it was that pulled me from the flames . . . he is truly
noble, and a hero. Now, let me see my rescuer face to face.”
A tall, light-haired human stepped forward. “Actually, it was Mr. Radu
who saved you.”
Mavros waited anxiously as the group parted and he met the eyes of his rescuer.
An Andromedan? He, a Spung warrior, had been saved by a pasty-faced
freak? This was a disgrace! As the creature stepped back nervously, Mavros
suddenly realized that he was upset - he expected gratitude? A pasty-face
expected gratitude from a Spung?
But because of him, I will be able to return and prove that I completed
my manhood mission, he thought. Conflicting voices were raging in his
head. Will I gain any honor from completing the mission in this way? Being
saved by an Andromedan? This horrid incident will mark me forever
as a coward. I was unable to free myself from danger and was freed instead
by one of those - those - pieces of filth!
Harlan was watching him worriedly. Would he do it? Radu was still standing
there, obviously terrified of what Mavros would do. Harlan knew that the
Spung was basically a good guy - but he was proud. Would his pride let him
acknowledge an Andromedan?
With the air of one steeling himself for a final mission, Mavros stepped
forward and offered his hand. When Radu shook it, Harlan let loose a breath
he hadn’t even realized he had been holding. It looked like everything
was going to be all right after all.
Mavros abruptly withdrew his hand. He turned and hurried from the room, his
mind a jumble of conflicting thoughts.
A few days later, the boys awoke to find Mavros nowhere in sight. It seemed
as though he had just disappeared into thin air . . . until Bova spotted
the compupad sitting beside the empty bunk.
The touch of a button brought Mavros’s indistinct image to the screen.
In a blurred voice, he began: “Although I shall forever be grateful
to you for having saved my life, this incident has forever prevented me from
returning to my home planet. The fact that I, a young Spung warrior, was
saved from death by a pasty-face - meaning no offense and certainly begging
his pardon - will remain a permanent black spot on my honor and reputation.
So I have made a decision. I am leaving now, and will be a burden to you
no more. You will not see me again. Good-bye, all.”
Harlan jumped up as Thelma came into the room. “Excuse me,” she
said, “but I thought you would like to know that the airlock was recently
opened, and that external scanners have detected a large object nearby.”
“Screen on,” Radu said cautiously.
After a few seconds, something floated into the picture. The utter silence
was suddenly broken by Harlan’s voice. “Mavros . . . ”
“Radu, what’s the matter?” Rosie peered at him anxiously.
He was staring into space, totally oblivious to her, the game, and everything
else.
“Huh? Oh, nothing . . . I was just thinking about the Spung.” She
looked at him curiously. “I mean, before I came on this trip, I never
knew that they were anything but monsters. But since we’ve been on the
Christa, we’ve met some that weren’t. I mean, there was Mavros
. . . and Elmira . . . ” He trailed off. “I’m just wondering
if maybe we might be wrong about them, just like the UPP was wrong about
the Andromedans.”
“Remember when we first met Elmira?” Rosie said, looking as if
she were holding back a giggle.
“Yeah - I didn’t think she was any different from the rest of
them.” He smiled as if to say, Boy, was I wrong!
“You didn’t even trust her enough to let her do a prediction for
you.”
“Well, actually,” he said suddenly, “she, uh, she did. It
was just her and me - right before she left. I don’t even remember what
she said. Something about fire, and, uh, becoming a hero . . . nothing that
ever happened, anyway.”
Suddenly, he was back in the team room with Elmira, hearing her voice as
clearly as if she were standing beside him, repeating her prediction:
Fire and darkness you will tame,
Hero added to your name,
Noble Radu, worthy and brave,
Those who scorn you, you will save.
Hey . . . he thought suddenly. I wonder if . . . Nah. Couldn’t
be.