Curious Horizons

The Medusas

The small ship was cramped between the four of them and reeked of oil. A furnace burned hotly behind a grate towards the back, lighting the ship a cheerless red and filling it with an oppressive heat. Every one stood in miserable silence, sweat darkening the backs of their shirts and shining on their brows. Roger sat in the only seat available, cheerily tugging at seemingly random knobs that startled Ledi with the resulting hiss elsewhere in the ship.

Ledi watched the careful movements of their pilot without actually seeing them. Her thoughts projected ahead of the ship, to their destination and what might be waiting for them. The bulky radio box strapped to her back gave her a sense of purpose, albeit an ungainly and heavy one. Still, it was a concrete role she could play, despite the fact that their destination was anything but concrete. The years she'd spent waiting to get to this point made it seem surreal, and every time she tried to guess what was to come, the overwhelming possibilities limited even daydreaming. Instead she focused on what she knew. She had her radio-box. She knew how and when to use it. She would follow Brendan's instructions and would say nothing unless directly spoken to. If they were in danger, she would radio Roger. Instead of imagining possibilities, she focused on solutions. The repetition of her duties calmed her and kept her from dwelling on what they might meet.

Curious, Ledi snuck a glance at her companions to see how they were preparing themselves. Wyman's eyes were closed and his thick hands were clasped before him. His slack face made him look younger than his forty years, almost serene. His feet were planted a little apart, to naturally absorb the occasional turbulence of their descent. His leather scabbard and holster bounced to the rhythm of the ship's movements on his waist, though the thick man seemed unmoved. Ledi wondered if this was a pre-battled tactic he learned in the army to calm himself, or if he really was that composed. His eyes opened slightly and he caught her gaze, nodding grimly.

Hastily, Ledi turned her gaze to Brendan. He looked as though he might be sick. His lips were tight and his blue upturned eyes gazed sightlessly at the back of Roger's chair. Ledi felt a surge of sympathy for him. His role was the most abstract and difficult. The sole diplomat, Brendan would have to improvise every stage of their time on the foreign planet. He had to adjust to cultural niceties, etiquette, and taboos on the fly and still turn their opinion favorably onto them. Wyman and Ledi's role was basic: respond to danger and unexpected turns according to procedure. At least she had the mantra of duty to console herself with.

Feeling foolish, Ledi watched her feet and tried not to think about the unsteady motions of the ship as they moved.

"Five minutes," Roger promised after an immeasurable amount of time. Ledi shifted the radio box on her back, feeling the sticky sweat on her back where it sat. The unsteady motions of the ship increased and it rumbled ominously. Roger bounced haphazardly in his chair with an unprofessional grin. Ledi noticed that the wall of white that Roger had been turning into was now blue sky, and a red-brown world lay below.

They careened towards the rusty world, a mad dash that Ledi inwardly thought could end in nothing but messy tragedy, before Roger gave a sing-song call of "brace!"

Ledi was still contemplating what to brace herself on when an angry hiss of steam and sudden jolt slowed their progress considerably. She fell forward onto the steel floor. The radio box slid up her back, adding to her unsteady momentum and almost making her somersault before the back of her head stopped its progression. She caught herself hard on her hands and knees and steadied herself.

"What the hell!" she angrily snapped as she pushed herself up and rubbed the back of her head where she had been hit. "That wasn't a warning at all!" Roger mumbled a sheepish and distracted apology. Ledi noticed that neither Brendan nor Wyman had fallen, though both were watching her curiously as they held on to one of the many pipes and odd protrusions in the ship's interior. Embarrassed, she stood all the way and refused to touch her head in a play of unconcern, though it throbbed.

"Brace in thirty seconds," Roger said by means of apology. Ledi almost grabbed one of the hot pipes carrying steam Roger had warned them against. Unwilling to look a fool again, she grasped a metal bar from the door that would become a stepladder in a matter of thirty seconds.

The ship gave another menacing hiss and drastically slowed again. Then, with a forceful jolt that almost made her lose her grip, they struck ground.

"Your stop," Roger said as they composed themselves. Outside, they could see nothing but an expanse of the reddish earth, decorated with scattered stones monoliths that thrust from the ground imposingly. Roger pulled his security halter up over his head and stood to pull a lever next to Ledi. She let go of the bar she had clung to as it swung heavily onto the ground. "I'm sorry about your fall," Roger told her.

Wyman and Brendan were already at the door, peering out.

"Right," Brendan said, and clambered ungracefully down the ladder. Ledi followed, then Wyman.

They stood on soft ground. The door of the ship had even sunk a few inches into it. Furrows lined it, like the ripples of a river on a balmy day, lines all facing the same direction. The air was humid and warm, and the sky blue. It was different from the dry heat of the ship, but no less pressing in its heavy weight.

Behind them, the door of the ship rose upwards and clanged in farewell. The ungainly machine whirred back into life in a cloud of steam and the wings—sheets of light metal bolted to a thin metal frame—cocked at an odd angle to try to catch a breeze.

The three ambassadors hurried away from the ship, which finally found enough wind to serve as leverage when combined with its own mechanical push and took to the air like a renegade kite.

Then they were alone, in a world whose boulders were its only landmarks.

"Now we walk," Brendan said, "and hope whatever's here finds us more of an interest than a threat."