An Abyss of Light (The Light Trilogy) (11 page)

“Damn it,” he cursed to himself. The overwhelming urge to go into the port and drag Zadok out rose in him.

“Don’t be a fool. It’s too risky. He’s probably just meeting someone and will be out in no time.”

Settling himself uneasily in the midst of an overgrown mahogany bush, he waited, eyes glued to the doors.

Yosef Calas adjusted his round spectacles and pressed close to the portal of the ship, peering at the emerald world below. The wedge-shaped continent of Taxo shone opalescent amid clinging fogs. A rainbow of colors eddied with the changing slant of sunlight as the ship descended. Deep green valleys and jagged granite peaks loomed out at them as they approached.

“Ari? Come look at this. Beautiful, isn’t it?”

His friend didn’t move from his chair. “They all look alike to me. Planets are planets. Balls of dust.”

Yosef scowled. Ari sat with his long legs propped on the control console of the tiny ship, slowly sipping a beer. An extremely tall old man, his thick gray hair hung in a rumpled uncombed mass over his ears. He had a withered triangular face with hollow cheeks and a crooked nose—from provoking one too many fights in the gin mills. Yosef wondered at times of any part of his friend’s thin body were actually connected to his head.

“You lunatic,” Yosef charged, disgruntled. He waddled over and roughly shoved Ari’s boots off the white console. “How many times does the captain have to tell you you could blow us up doing that?”

“He doesn’t mind anymore!” He thrust a hand at the middle-aged man in the gray space suit, helmet clamped down, whose hand rested suspiciously near the eject button.

“Sure, and your mother really knew your father. The poor man is just tired of telling you, you simpleminded—”

“Bah!” Ari gave him a broad smile. “Hey, come’ere. You want to know what this switch does?” He wiggled a red lever marked “AutoDes.”

“Don’t touch that.”
the captain yelled, rising half out of his seat.

Yosef jumped, staring. The man’s voice sounded scratchy through the helmet speaker. “Get over there and sit down in the passenger seat! Damn! I don’t know why I take assignments like this.”

Ari punched Yosef in the side, winking. “He’s the simple-minded one. We paid him a planet’s ransom and he doesn’t know why—”

“You have to pay for speed,
you old bozon.
This is one of the fastest ships in the sector,” the captain defended.

Yosef threw up his hands and sat down in one of the lavender passengers’ seats, hitting the button to secure the lifesystems field around him.

Ari eyed him condescendingly. “You’re not scared, are you?”

“Not so long as I’m protected from vacuum.” Yosef punched the arm button for music and turned it loud enough that he couldn’t hear Ari’s continuing remarks. Unfortunately, he could still see him waving his arms.

The
Seros
was a very small ship. Built for speed, it seated only four. Dials with wavering colored lines covered the forward panel, while levers, buttons, and computer screens filled the control console beneath. A simple round viewing portal adorned each side of the vessel. As Yosef looked around, he caught his reflection in the silver shielding over his head. Short and pudgy, the circle of white hair around his otherwise bald head lay neatly against his freckled scalp, but just to make sure, he licked his palm and slicked it down. His round face had sagged a good bit in the past fifty years. Deep wrinkles wove a pattern of harsh years across his sun-bronzed skin, but his brown eyes were still dark and sharp over his blunt nose. Straightening the high collar of his pale green suit, he looked back at Ari.

His lifelong friend stood over the captain, trying to push buttons while the suited man repeatedly shoved his hand away from the controls. Red-faced, the captain’s mouth formed a series of unmistakable profanities. Yosef shook his head and closed his eyes, feeling that familiar sense of weightlessness just before touchdown.

The ship wobbled a little before easing onto the landing pad. Yosef opened his eyes in time to see the captain shake a fist at Ari, then grab his flight bag and disappear through the open hatch. Yosef turned off the shield and sat forward.

“What a quark,” Ari accused, flailing an arm at the hatch. “He wouldn’t even let me try to land the ship.”

Yosef sighed in exasperation and went to the luggage compartment to retrieve his single bag. “Come on. Zadok’s probably been waiting for hours.”

“We pay two thousand lirot and still we’re late. We should have—”

“If you hadn’t jammed the acceleration lever just after takeoff, we’d probably have been on time,” Yosef pointed out as he exited the hatch into the bright sunlight of Kayan.

The chill wind stung his face, carrying with it the moist promise of rain. A bank of blue-black clouds loomed on the horizon, pushing toward the city. The spaceport sat in a bowl in the land surrounded by thickly forested hills. Ahead of him, a complex of single-story gray buildings formed a semicircle. People in multicolored clothing from a variety of planets crowded around one area. Yosef waddled toward them, assuming the main door must be close.

“Wait a minute,” Ari said from behind him.

Yosef stopped and gave his friend a hard glare. Ari’s blue suit looked like he’d slept in it. “What is it now?”

“Look at that.” His friend pointed.

Adjusting his spectacles, Yosef squinted at the purple-suited men frisking people. “They’re marines. What’s wrong with that?”

“Marines don’t guard spaceports unless—”

“Have you ever been to Kayan?”

“That doesn’t matter, marines don’t—”

“They won’t bother you. Now, come on!”

“Bother me? Of course not. I’m not going to stand in line so they can feel me.” Ari pushed past him. Yosef narrowed his eyes and sighed. No telling what Ari had planned. Reluctantly, he followed.

When they neared the building, the soldiers were busy questioning someone else and Ari took the opportunity to hit the button to open the door marked: “Arrivals—Customs.” He’d made it halfway through the door, when a harsh command stopped him.

“Hey!” one of the guards shouted, stabbing out a finger. “Halt.”

Ari looked around himself as though wondering who the guard meant.

Yosef pursed his lips in embarrassed dismay, murmuring, “You idiot. They’ll probably arrest us now.”

“You two,” the guard ordered. “Come over here. We have to check your papers before you get inside.”

Ari tilted his head quizzically, like he didn’t understand intergalactic lingua. Yosef quickly trudged to the guard, explaining, “He’s senile. You have to use hand signals with him.” In an elaborate gesture, he waved his friend toward the soldier’s check station. “Just like calling a dog, see?”

Ari squinted, perturbed, but complied. When he got close enough, he growled in Yosef’s ear. “As usual, you ruined it. We could have gotten through easy if you hadn’t—”

“Excuse me,” the guard interrupted, repeating Yosef’s elaborate waving to instruct Ari to come closer. “Come.”

Ari gave Yosef a scathing sideways glance. “What do you want?”

Politely, the guard explained, “I need to search you, sir. Please put your hands behind your head and spread your legs.”

Ari reluctantly did as he’d been told. The guard retrieved a long wand from his belt and ran it up and down Ari’s legs, checking the readings on the dials for any of a number of hidden substances. “Well,” the soldier commented, “you look all right.”

“Of course, I’m all right.”

“One last thing,” he said, and knelt to physically examine Funk’s legs with his hands.

Ari jumped. “Wait a minute—”

“It’s standard procedure, sir.”

“I don’t care, I—”

“Hold still!” the guard demanded as Ari squirmed like a fish on a hook.

Funk clamped his teeth and scowled, giving Yosef an evil glare, as though he were responsible. Yosef yawned, ignoring him.

When the guard’s hands rose to Ari’s crotch, the old man smiled broadly. “Pretty nice, aren’t they?”

The guard halted, face growing red.
“I beg your pardon?”

Yosef gritted his teeth and closed his eyes, knowing prison waited just inside the terminal. Ari jumped on any opportunity to antagonize government personnel.

The guard stood up and thrust out a hand. “Let me see your papers.”

Yosef dug inside his coat pocket and handed his over, waiting for Ari to do the same. Then he jabbed his friend in the kidney and whispered, “I want to talk to you!”

“What for?

He gripped Ari’s sleeve and dragged him a short distance away while the soldier examined their travel authorizations.

“What’d you do that for? They’re going to run us through the mill now.”

“Bah!” Ari waved a withered hand. “I didn’t do it, he did.”

“You imbecile. You’re the one who resisted.”

“Did you see him run his hand around that other man’s jewels?”

Yosef shifted positions, thinking. “No, but—”

“These Philistines are all alike: jealous. They have to make sure the stories about Gamants are true.”

“I knew I shouldn’t have brought you. You’re nothing but trouble. Insulting people—”

“Have you ever seen Philistine testicles?” Ari pressed, propping his hands on his bony hips.

“I’ve never made a study.”

His friend formed a tiny circle with his thumb and forefinger. “Pathetic things.”

“What do you do? Spend all your time in latrines examining people?”

“You don’t have to be scientific about it. You see one or two sets and you can tell the difference.”

“Calas! Funk!” the guard called sharply. “Here’s your papers.”

They walked back and retrieved them. “Thank you,” Yosef said politely and headed for the door.

“Wait a minute,” the guard protested, thrusting an arm roughly at the Seros. “Get back on that ship. No Gamants are allowed on the planet’s surface today.”

Yosef cast a sideways glance at Ari and cringed as he saw his friend’s mouth tighten until it looked like a withered prune. “What do you mean? We’re just as good as—”

“Cut it! I don’t care one whit about your mother’s mother. My orders are that
no
Gamants are allowed in today. I’ll let you know when the situation relaxes.”

“What’s tense about Gamants?” Ari insisted, his chin thrust out indignantly.

“I don’t have access to that information, sir.”

“Well, go find out!”

A hot gleam filled the guard’s eyes and Yosef grabbed Ari by the tail of his coat, pulling him backward. “Forgive him, Private,” he whispered conspiratorially. “His doctors have been working day and night to find out what’s wrong with his brain, but to no avail yet.”

The youth frowned suspiciously. “I suggest, then, that you take him back to the ship so he can’t get in any trouble.”

“I’ll do that.”

Yosef forcibly dragged his friend away. But when they’d gone no more than ten paces Ari blurted, “I’m not going! They can’t treat us like this. We’re citizens of the galaxy, too.”

Yosef opened his mouth to respond, but pain flashed so powerfully in his head, he staggered. The world spun around him. What was it? Something was wrong somewhere. Something was very wrong. The pain grew until he thought it would burst his skull. He clasped his head between his hands, trying to press the agony away.

“I refuse to—”

“Shut up.”

Ari blinked at the harsh tone and his expression changed from defiance to concern. “You all right?” he whispered, grabbing Yosef’s arm to steady him as he stumbled backward. “What is it?”

“My head … I …”

“Come on, let’s go sit down.”

“I
have
to get to my niece’s funeral, Ari. If I land in prison because of something you—”

“All right, all right,” Ari conceded guiltily. “I didn’t mean to mess things up.” Gently supporting Yosef’s arm, he led him back toward the
Seros.

“Is it just a headache or something more?”

“I don’t know.” Yosef blinked as the pain began to fade as quickly as it had come. “But I feel a little better now.”

They climbed the steps to the ship in silence. Yosef, in aggravation, threw his bag into the compartment. It bounced from the wall to land on the floor near the control console. He waddled to a chair and flopped down.

Ari exhaled and went to the tiny galley. Slapping the button to the cooling unit, he pulled out two bottles of beer and came back to sit beside Yosef.

“Here,” he said softly, handing over the brew. “You need this more than I do.”

“Thanks.”

Ari frowned, looking Yosef over in painstaking detail. Concern was plain on his withered face. “Are you feeling better? You look pale.”

“I’m better. The pain went away as suddenly as it came.”

“Probably just the sun. Don’t worry about it. A cool drink will make you feel better.”

They sat in silence for a while, sipping at the cold beer. The frosty bottle felt soothing in Yosef’s hot hand. Absently, he scanned the rows of blank computer screens on the control console.