Master of Shadows, Chapter 6: Gathering Gloom

There was a moment of silence inside the escape pod. Jack looked at his wife tenderly. Poor girl. I don’t blame her at all for not wanting to go out there. Even inside the pod he could hear the wind whistling. He knew it was going to be cold outside, and on top of that the landscape was the most unwelcoming sight he had ever seen.

Jack sighed. “Look, Lily. I know this isn’t exactly a vacation paradise. I realize that luxurious resorts are few and far between out here. But we don’t have a lot of options. If we want to get off this planet we’ve got to get to the Raptor – and since there doesn’t seem to be a subway station nearby I think we’re going to have to walk.”

“I guess,” Lily replied grumpily. “Does this miserable excuse for a spaceship have any supplies we can bring with us?”

Jack looked around. Secured under his seat were two small bundles labeled “Emergency Supplies”. Jack grabbed one and opened it. “Hmmm. Here we go! Looks like we’ve got water, some rations of some sort, a compass, a first-aid kit, a flashlight, and a couple flares. That’s about it.”

“That’s not much. How long do you think the food will last?”

Jack removed a small sheet of paper from the kit and glanced at it. “Two days, it looks like.”

“Two days?” Lily exclaimed. “You mean they give us two days to get rescued? What are we supposed to do in two days?”

Jack shrugged. “Keep in mind it takes a while to starve after you run out of food and water. We have a little bit more than two days, I think. Maybe five.”

“Oh, well that makes all the difference in the world, then!”

Jack laughed. “It’s not so bad. I have some idea where the Raptor went down and it shouldn’t take us anywhere near five days to get there. If the ship is still intact we may be in luck – I bet it’s got all kinds of supplies! Those starships are designed to spend years exploring planets like this. It’ll have everything we need.”

“What else do those instructions say?” Lily asked. “Does it explain how to survive on alien planets?”

“I’m afraid not, dear. I imagine whoever wrote this thinks that if you own a Starman-class starship you probably already have more survival skills than you could ever need. The only thing this guide explains is how to use the escape pod in the event of an emergency.”

“That’s kind of useless! What does it say?”

Jack read the page and then turned it over and read the back. “It says you push the big yellow Launch button and the pod will do the rest.”

Lily shook her head. “And they had to print instructions to tell you that? Isn’t it kind of obvious?”

“Well, you never know. For all we knew the Launch button could have launched missiles or something. We just got lucky.”

“I wouldn’t call being stranded here lucky, exactly,” his wife replied. “But I guess we’d better get moving. It’s probably getting late.”

Jack opened the door in the back of the pod and the two carefully stepped outside. “You know, that’s a really good question. What time it is here?”

“Who knows?” Lily said. “The sun is not near the horizon, so I’m guessing we’ve got at least a little bit of daylight left.”

“Sounds good to me,” Jack said. He made sure that they were both carrying their wilderness survival kits and had not left anything important in the pod. He then removed the compass from his kit and consulted it.

“Well, it looks like we’re in luck,” Jack announced. “This planet has a magnetic field so we can use this to guide us. The compass claims that north is that way,” he said, pointing.

“Which way is the city?” Lily asked. “You said the ship went down near the city, right? That’s something we should be able to see from quite a distance.”

“It’s northwest of here, more or less. If we head in that direction we should be ok.”

“Let’s hope it’s more, and not less,” Lily replied.

Jack smiled. The two of them began hiking over the desert landscape. As Jack had feared the sun provided very little warmth and the atmosphere was cold. A gentle wind occasionally blew, stealing the warmth from their bones. Black, gritty dust covered the rocky ground like sand. When the wind blew it stirred up the dust and formed little black clouds that slowly settled back onto the surface.

The couple was able to cross the desert at a fairly rapid pace. Jack was badly out of shape and had to ask Lily to slow down after the first hour. “I just can’t take this,” he complained.

“I told you you needed to start exercising!” Lily replied primly. “If you’d taken my advice you wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“I wasn’t planning on launching a career hiking across alien deserts, dear. That never crossed my mind.”

“But it never hurts to be prepared.”

A bank of gray clouds leisurely floated overhead. I wonder if it ever rains here, Jack thought. Neither of them had seen any signs of water or plant life. As far as the eye could see there was nothing but rough, broken terrain that was scarred by giant, cracked rocks.

After the second hour Lily started getting tired as well. “This black dirt is getting all over me,” she complained. “It’s in my shoes, it’s on my skirt – it’s awful. I’m never going to be able to get it out of my clothing! I was dressed for a night out on the town, not a hiking trip.”

“I think we’re making progress, though,” Jack said. “I bet we’ve covered at least a couple miles, if not more. I can’t even see the pod anymore.”

“Are you sure we’re not going in circles?” his wife asked. “These broken black rocks all look the same to me.”

“Positive,” Jack replied, with more assurance than he felt.

Lily looked up at the sky. “The sun is getting a lot lower. I’d say we only have a couple hours of daylight left.”

“I noticed that,” her husband replied. “Either the days are really short or we got here late in the afternoon. I’m still hoping we’ll make it to the city before nightfall. I’d feel better if we were in a building of some kind instead of out here in the open. It’s just creepy out here. What’s with all these little bits of broken metal on the ground?”

“Beats me,” Lily said. “What gets me are the lights, though. I hate them. It’s like they’re looking at me or something.”

“What lights?” Jack asked. “You’ve been seeing lights?”

Lily turned to her husband in surprise. “You mean you haven’t noticed the little blue lights that are all around us? How could you possibly have missed them? Look over there in that pit. Do you see them now?”

Jack looked where his wife was pointing and gasped. Inside the dark hole he could see little blue sparks appearing in midair and then vanishing in an instant. The sparks were no bigger than a pinhead. Sometimes they would persist for a few moments and gently float in the air before they faded back into nothingness.

“I’ve been watching them for the past hour,” Lily explained. “They’re easiest to see in the shadows but they’re actually all around us. They’re just so faint that it’s hard to see in the daylight.”

“If you can call this daylight,” Jack muttered. “That’s the lousiest excuse for a sun I’ve ever seen. I bet there are moons that give off more light than that.”

“Probably,” Lily said.

Now that his wife had brought the blue lights to his attention Jack started noticing them everywhere. They were hard to see at first – just little sparks that appeared and vanished. But as time went on he began to see entire clouds of them here and there, hidden in the countless shadows that covered the ground.

“Where do you think the lights are coming from?” Lily asked.

“It’s probably just alien swamp gas, or something,” Jack replied breezily.

“Don’t you need a swamp to have alien swamp gas?”

Her husband shrugged. “I don’t know. Apparently not! The lights have got to be coming from somewhere.”

“But wouldn’t it require a lot of energy to generate all of those lights?” Lily asked.

“Probably,” Jack said.

“Then where is that energy coming from? The only things I see out here are rocks, black sand, bits of broken metal, and gloom. Lots and lots of gloom. But nothing that looks like an energy source.”

“I don’t know, dear. If my high school geography teacher ever lectured on Lemura I completely missed it. That might have been one of the lectures I slept through. Geography was never my strong point.”

Lily laughed. “No, it sure wasn’t. You have many fine qualities, my husband, but that is not one of them.”

“Does it seem to you that the lights are moving in some kind of pattern? It’s almost like – ” Jack paused, searching for the right words. “It’s almost like they’re trying to form shapes, or maybe letters. Do you get the idea there is some sort of meaning in the lights?”

Lily shook her head. “They just freak me out, Jack. That’s all I can say. There is something unnatural about them and I don’t like them and I want to go home. Right now.”

“Me too,” Jack agreed.

They continued hiking for another hour. By this point the pod was three hours behind them.

Lily was the first to speak up. “Is it just me or is it getting colder?”

“It’s getting darker too,” Jack said. “I think the sun is about to go down.”

Lily nodded. “I’m starting to see more lights now. As the shadows get longer the lights seem to multiply. They almost look like little insects now. It’s as if they grow stronger when the sun goes down.”

“Just like vampires!” Jack quipped.

“That’s a comforting thought!” Lily replied. “This planet could be a vampire paradise, couldn’t it? You’ve got it all – darkness, rocks, cold, and a lifetime supply of depressing gloom. What more could an up-and-coming vampire want?”

“But you don’t have any victims!” Jack pointed out. “Any vampires that lived here would starve to death.”

“Unless all the life forms on this planet are invisible,” Lily teased. “Or at least, invisible to us. Or maybe they’re made of pure energy, like the monsters in the movies.”

Jack frowned. “What does that even mean – ‘pure energy’? How could something possibly be made out of energy? Energy is just the potential to accomplish work. I could understand a being made out of electrical batteries, maybe, but -”

“Look!” Lily exclaimed. The couple had just climbed over a small ridge. To their surprise the ridge was actually on the cusp of a deep valley. Far below them, in the valley, was the city they had been seeking. It was nestled in the heart of a long chain of hills and was apparently built in some sort of natural indentation.

Jack breathed a sigh of relief. “And none too soon. I bet if we hurry we’ve got just enough time to scamper down there and enter the city before it gets dark.”

Lily looked at the city and frowned. “I hate to bring this up, but now that we’re here I can’t say the city looks very inviting. All I see are skeletons of ruined buildings. It looks pretty old and rickety to me.”

“Would you rather spend the night out here in the open?” Jack asked.

“I’d rather spend the night at home in my own bed, if it’s all the same to you! But seriously. How do we know the city is safer than the countryside? Have you ever been there before?”

“Not exactly,” Jack said. “Honestly, I have no idea what I’m doing. I studied electronics and wormhole mechanics in college, not survival strategies. But my gut feeling is that in the city we’d at least have some shelter. Out here we’re pretty vulnerable to whatever comes along.”

“What if that evil shadow being lives in the city?” Lily asked.

“Do you think it’s from this planet?” Jack asked.

“It would certainly fit in here! I bet it would be right at home. For all we know that city could be filled with a whole army of shadow beings.”

Jack nodded. “True. Very true. But it’s also possible that there is food and water in that city. There’s even a chance that Starman Alice is down there. The doubt and uncertainty cuts both ways.”

His wife looked surprised. “You think the Starman might still be alive?”

“Could be! After all, the Raptor had a transporter on board – I saw it on the map. It’s entirely possible that the Molly had one too. She might have beamed off just before the ship exploded. If I was her and I was still alive I would definitely head for that city.”

Lily laughed. “You’ve never had a day of Starman training in your whole life, Jack! How do you know what she would do?”

“Call it a hunch. After all, if your starship was stolen wouldn’t you want to get it back? Wouldn’t you make a beeline for it the moment your feet touched the ground?”

“Makes sense to me,” Lily said. “So what are we going to do? Are we going to avoid the city or go down into it?”

“I say we head for the city,” Jack said firmly. “I have a good feeling about it.”

“All right,” his wife replied. “I’m right behind you.”

It took them the better part of an hour to reach the outskirts of the city. By the time they finally climbed down the mountain it was pitch black. The planet had no moon, and the only light was from a handful of stars that shown in the sky. Jack was no expert in astronomy but the relative emptiness of the night sky gave him the feeling he was very far from home.

“I hope these flashlights hold out,” Jack said aloud. “I have a feeling it’s going to be tough to find new batteries for them.”

“Didn’t they say on the news that the Raptor had just been overhauled? Surely that would include checking the escape pods as well.”

“Would you think to replace batteries in flashlights?” Jack asked.

“No, but I’m not a Starman. Thinking of things like that is part of their job.”

Jack frowned. “That brings up another great question. How old is this food in our packs? You don’t suppose it’s already gone bad, do you?”

“I doubt it,” Lily replied. “I didn’t see any dates on the packaging, but it looks like it’s some kind of awful sealed food that will last until the stars burn out. I bet someone has written a scientific paper proving that our rations can never go bad under any circumstances.”

Jack laughed. “That’s a comforting thought! Say, have you noticed that the blue lights are gone?”

Lily nodded. “As soon as we started down into this valley they disappeared. I haven’t seen any of them since, even in the deepest shadows. But have you noticed that the buildings are glowing?”

“Yeah, I have. But sadly, they’re not glowing bright enough to replace our flashlights. The metal is just glowing here and there, in little fits. It’s acting like an engine that can’t quite get started. It is the weirdest thing.”

“I guess it matches the rest of the planet then! I’ve seen nothing but weirdness ever since we arrived. But where are we going, anyway?”

Jack stopped. The two of them had been walking down a street that was paved with some sort of unknown black substance. The street was filled with cracks and gashes but there were no plants or weeds to be seen. Around them were giant skyscrapers that had been reduced to nothing but their blue metal frames. The city was clearly extremely old. It’s been a very long time since anyone has lived here, Jack thought to himself. I get the feeling they weren’t expecting any visitors.

Aloud he said, “Do any of these buildings actually have roofs? Maybe we can find a somewhat intact one and stay there.”

Jack and Lily walked down a few more blocks, searching for a structure that had weathered the passage of time reasonably well. They at last settled on a short building three stories tall that still had its blue steel walls, floors, and ceilings intact. The couple carefully walked inside.

“I suppose we’d better explore the whole building before settling down for the night,” Jack said.

“That would be a great idea,” Lily replied. “Not that I would feel any safer, really, considering where we’re at. But at least we’d know something about the hotel we’ve picked.”

Jack located a battered stairwell in the rear of the building. The couple used it to access and explore all three levels and the roof. After a half-hour of searching they realized that the structure was entirely empty. There was nothing inside – not even so much as writing on the walls.

“Where do you want to make camp?” Jack asked.

“The first floor,” Lily said without hesitation. “If something goes wrong in the middle of the night I don’t want to have to run down a flight of stairs.”

“Works for me,” Jack replied. “I don’t know about you, but I’m tired. It’s been a long day.”

“Or a long week, or month, or however long it’s been,” Lily said. “We’ve kind of lost track of time.”

“True. Say, do you want to eat something before turning in?”

“I’m not really hungry,” Lily replied. “Something about darkness and unending gloom has taken away my appetite.”

Jack smiled. “Things will get better, dear. We’ll find a way home. Just give it time. Tomorrow will be another day.”

Lily yawned. “Are you sure there aren’t any sleeping bags in those emergency kits?”

“Positive,” Jack said. “There’s not even a blanket.”

“I am definitely writing a strong letter to whoever designs those kits the moment I get home,” his wife grumbled. “That kit is totally useless! There’s no sleeping bags, no soap, no shampoo, no source of running water -”

Jack leaned over and kissed his wife. “Goodnight, dear.”

Lily sighed. “Goodnight.”