The Stars Came Back (6 page)

Helton pulls out a series of tiny flashlights, checks them and tosses one each to four groups.

Helton: Always kept a supply of these handy for the kids. You’ll need to march all night to keep from freezing, but don’t go too fast or you’ll sweat and get dehydrated and exhausted. Save your water until tonight if you can. A couple of big turns down the canyon, you’ll see the prison mine. Find a spot just around the bend, out of sight on the west side, and wait for us. Harbin and I’ll take the cut around the other side of the mesa. We’ll sneak in, grab something flyable, zip out to grab you, and get as much airspace as we can between us and them as fast as we can. We’ll aim for sunset in two days, so be ready to move. If we don’t pick you up before sunset in three days, go in together as a group, and you’ll have to take your chances because in three days… (shrugs the obvious alternatives away). If you are stopped and cold, huddle together. Questions?

Male passenger2: Shouldn’t we bury these guys?

Helton: No. No time to waste before the heat sets in. Anything else?

Monk: (
Holding out his water bottle) I won’t need this.

Helton: Yes, you will.

Monk: (Gritting his teeth) No. It won’t make any difference for me, might save one of you.

Helton: Thanks. (
Takes the bottle gently) We’ll come back for you.

Monk: Only if you can do so safely.

The monk motions feebly to Helton for him to come closer. Helton bends down. The monk whispers something into his ear, and presses a small medallion into Helton’s hand.

INSET - a 40mm medallion of metal, red with a black enamel Possenti cross, which looks somewhat like a mil-dot reticle with two short and one long stadia lines on each vertical, and two short stadia on the horizontal crosshairs.

The look of seriousness on Helton’s face deepens. He puts his hand with the medallion into his pocket.

Helton stand
s up, looks at the group as they arrange themselves, looking like they have renewed hope, even if it’s going to be tough.

Helton: Well, good luck. Hopefully we’ll see you all in two days.

One of the ladies in the group comes up and gives him a hug.

Lady1: Thank you. Good luck!

The rest of the group gives Harbin and Helton a quick hug or handshake, with murmurs of “Luck” or “Bless you” and “Give ‘em hell.” Harbin takes a close look at the monk, sitting, slumped on the ground. The monk looks at Harbin and shakes his head slightly, wincing. He straightens up slightly, adjusts his position, and settles into a meditating position.

They all start off in their respective directions. After two dozen paces, Harbin stoops, picks up a smooth rock a bit smaller than a baseball, hefts it, and turns to
ward the monk, now sitting facing the sunrise. The camera view returns to frame Harbin as he winds up and hurls the rock,
hard
, and there is a soft
crunch
as it smashes into the monks skull, then the flopping sound as he collapses over onto the ground. Helton looks at him, appalled.

Harbin: (
Flatly) Alone in a desert dying of thirst and organ failure. Not a good way to go.

He turns to address the monk, salutes him, and speaks in a respectful, sincere tone.

Harbin: May your God watch over your soul.

Harbin turns back to Helton, waving his hand in the direction of the mesa.

Harbin: Lead on,
gubernator
.

FADE TO BLACK

FADE IN

EXT - DAY - Near the foot of a long mesa

Helton and Harbin scramble rapidly along a narrow flat spot at the foot of a mesa, Helton's traveler coat flapping in the wind, with a steep side going up on their left, and a deep, regular but rough, nearly semicircular valley cut made by a terraforming machine sweeping down to the right. They hop from one rock to another, moving smoothly along, a half dozen paces apart.

CUT TO

Series of short aerial flyby shots of them making rapid progress along the foot of the mesa, first in shadows then with th
e sun working its way overhead.

CUT TO

A
series of shots showing some of the other groups of people walking along a sandy valley bottom, steep canyon walls rising around them. They march along, the stronger helping others who are struggling, such as one man lifting up a young girl to sit on his shoulders.

CUT TO

Flying zoom into
Helton and Harbin standing side by side, surveying the way ahead, pointing out a possible path, then standing arms akimbo as they just take in the view across the valley.

CUT TO

Much closer
view of them standing, scanning ahead and taking a breather.

Harbin: Where did you serve?

Helton looks at Harbin questioningly.

Helton: Serve?

Harbin: The way you talk, move; like most of the good officers and NCOs I’ve known. Either officer training, or good command instincts.

Helton: Thanks. I did the traditional two years everyone in my family did. Army on Asimov 3. (
Faux haughty) Attained the exalted command rank of corporal, second class, promotable. (Sarcastically) The 500 they asked me to pay for a five year reenlistment and one-grade promotion didn’t quite seem right.

Harbin laughs out loud and nods knowingly.

Harbin: I’ve worked with that sort of force before. Payoffs and corruption throughout.

Helton: You’re a soldier?

Harbin shrugs to indicate “more or less.”

Helton:
…Mercenary?

Harb
in: I prefer “freelance righter of wrongs.” My wife describes it as “negotiation failure contingency planner” to keep from scaring people.

Helton: Anywhere in particular? Lots of stuff going on right now.

Harbin: I work for a Plataean unit wherever it goes. Here and there.

Helton: You Plataean?

Harbin nods.

Helton: Now I believe some of the things I’ve heard about them.

Harbin: An honest reputation is worth far more than one not earn
ed.

Helton:
Native or earned citizenship?

Harbin: Born there, but
Plataean citizenship is
always
earned. Passed my Komenagen at 19 with an 8. Bothered my parents that I passed the test in the field with the only person in a generation to score a 130.

Helton: 130? A perfect score?

Harbin nods the affirmative.

Helton: And you barely passed? Ouch.

Harbin: I was a punk, once. Someone looked past the score, looked at
me
. It worked out well enough.

Helton: …
She mind you being gone, out to places like this? Your wife, I mean.

Harbin: Hadn’t planned on being
here. She likes me being good at what I do, and standing by her. A steady income working for honest people is beneficial for a marriage, too.

Helton: Glad you’re on my side… You
are
on my side, aren’t you?

Harbin: We have a strong mutual interest in each others’ success.

Helton looks at him, acknowledging there is much left unsaid.

Helton: What now? Rest ‘till it gets cooler?

Harbin: You’re in charge. But since you asked, I’d say we should look for a good shadow to hide in.

Helton: (
Skeptically) I’m in charge, huh?

Harbin shrugs
, a matter-of-fact expression on his face.

Harbin: You know th
e planet, the mine, the terrain. You made the plan and took command in a very decisive way. I’m just along for the scenery until we reintroduce ourselves more properly to those who, as you said, handed us this “crap sandwich.”

Helton: Well, then I guess-

Helton suddenly cocks his head to listen, then scans the horizon and the rocks around them. A slight hum can be heard.

Helton: Damn. Flier of some sort. See any place to hide?

They both take off at a run along the scree slope, trying to find something to hide behind. They bounce along the slope rapidly, then come around a small spur and see a dark spot in a narrow draw that looks like a cave entrance, partially covered by rocks and debris. They scramble quickly over to it and slide in.

Cave

CUT TO

INT - DAY - Interior view of cave entrance

Helton and Harbin slide down the loose rocks and
sand half filling the cave mouth and lie, panting quietly but otherwise motionless, listening intently for what is passing outside. The humming of a flier grows louder as it approaches, then Dopplers down and fades away. They are about to move again when the sound of a different flier is heard approaching, then fades away. They look at each other, then around the cave.

Helton: Good a place to rest as any. Cool, out of sight.

Harbin grunts agreement, keeping his eyes on the entrance.

They both lay back and relax in the half
light that comes in the partially blocked entry, and look around to take stock of their situation. The cave is flat bottomed, with nearly perfectly round walls and ceiling, like a culvert one-third filled with sand, about three meters diameter, going back as far as they can see, straight into the dark. There are rocks and debris scattered about the floor, and the walls are even but not very smooth. In the poor light they can’t see very well.

Helton: Hmmm… This cave isn’t natural.

Harbin looks at him skeptically.

Harbin: Looks natural enough to me.

Helton: (Shaking head, examining the wall more closely) No. Too symmetrical. Eroded, so it’s been here a while, but it’s not the sort of tube that would occur naturally in this kind of rock. Lava tubes are usually in
lava
. Wrong geology. Weird.

Harbin: If you say so. Not my field.

Helton rubs the wall, and finds it is much smoother than it first looked.

Helton: (
Quietly to himself) A
long
while.

He
lton stands up, brushes himself off, and walks back slowly into the cave keeping one hand on the wall, tapping and sweeping his foot back and forth in front of himself gently, checking for holes, booby traps, or anything suspicious. He stops, pats his pockets, digs out one of his tiny flashlights, then clicks it on and shines its dim beam around. Walking back some distance, the tunnel becomes gloomier, the dark rock reflecting little light. Faintly discernible ahead in the feeble beam is a low pedestal in the center of the tunnel. He approaches cautiously. On it is something book-shaped, about 20cm x 30cm x 5cm. He picks it up. There are no markings on it. The pages are almost to the edge of the binding. He tries to open it up, but it resists. Shut fast, with no obvious locking mechanism. Helton looks it over thoughtfully, then examines the pedestal briefly. It is a simple hexagonal column of rock with no symbols or details. Staring into the darkness, and a short way further on is the end of the tunnel. He turns and walks slowly back to the tunnel entrance.

Harbin: (
Looking out the entrance, talking over his shoulder) Anything?

Helton: Dunno. What do you make of this?

Helton hands the book over to Harbin to look at.

Harbin examines it briefly.

Harbin: (Skeptically) Book?

Helton: (
Sarcastically)
Really
? Never would have guessed that.

Harbin: Old desert hermit’s bedtime stories?

Helton: Hmmm… Maybe. (Examines it more closely) Let me see here.

Helton takes off his traveler’s coat, flips up the cape revealing a large flat pocket between the insulating lining and the tough outside layer, sized for
storing things like maps. He tucks the book into it, where it barely fits, so it will fall high on his back, like a pack. Harbin looks on skeptically.