Down below beyond, p.12
Down Below Beyond, page 12
Vobsii shook his head. “Luck again. As adults, Kurikoids have a very short lifespan. Even shorter than you humans. They spend most of their time in these pools before evolving into the adults you see outside this world. Every village is more like an old folk’s pen. It’s also why their planet is stuck at a primitive tech production level. Stone castles, thatch villages, that sort of stuff. All the smartest Kurikoids leave the planet while the young ones take over what’s already around. They don’t innovate much on their own.”
Vobsii stopped for a moment and adjusted the satchel slung over his midsection. “Hey, listen,” he started. “I know you don’t get out much, so I’ll let you know. None of the Kurikoids in the village ahead are children. Some might be smaller because they may have emerged from the spawning ponds more recently, but within a quarter-orbit, they’ll shed their tails and be as tall as us. I’m only telling you so you don’t treat them like kids.”
“Good to know,” Levort said.
The shadolgra snapped up another pest from the spawning pond in the distance and gobbled it down. It looked at Levort and Vobsii momentarily, then turned its attention back to the ponds. Levort asked, “You said you’ve been here before?”
Vobsii continued the hike toward the village ahead. “Yeah, of course. Me and Floem have been all over Lodespace. Kurika is nice when it's dark like this. In the daytime, it feels like the sun spit on you.”
“How’d you start being a tourist?” Levort asked. It was a lifestyle he’d never obtain, only observe. He had no clue how someone could begin something like that.
“Uhh, well…” Vobsii patted the back of his neck with his large hand. “Funny thing about that word.” He looked around suspiciously. “Since we’re friends now, I’ll level with you. We only call ourselves tourists, but really, we’ve stolen everything we have. The people who owned the Tumbleweed before us were tourists, so we sort of adopted their vocation.”
“So you are thieves?” Levort asked.
“Opportunists! Not thieves.” Vobsii pointed a finger into the sky. “We just find opportunities often. For instance, those opportunities that owned the Tumbleweed before us. They were trying to rip us off. We had been moving around via shuttles before that. Everyone loves having an Alberryan on their crew, and Floem always makes them take me with as part of her sign-on requirements. These tourists wanted some guides on Dintup to take them up the tall mountains, so they hired us. Then they decided they weren’t gonna pay us, so we took what we were owed. It’s hard hiking on Dintup. Gravity’s harsher.”
“Why weren’t they going to pay you?”
“Because the view isn’t as pretty as the data doc made it look.” Vobsii made his voice whiney as he mocked the previous owners of the Tumbleweed. He waved his hand off. “Total drits. Not worried about them. They had plenty of hapron. I’m sure they bought a nice cruiser to replace the Tumbleweed and continued to rip off honest opportunists like ourselves… Once they got down from the mountain on their own…”
“You left them on the peak?” Levort asked. “Remind me not to cross you guys.”
Vobsii laughed.
They came to the edge of town and heard strange music playing. The only way Levort could describe the tune was lumpy, which felt more accurate than it sounded. The mossy path they walked continued into the village, a medium-sized place with homes built of stone and moss stacked on each other. Lights and other Fleet tech speckled the town, giving it only a hint of a modern aesthetic. It was comfortable, in a cozy, wild sort of way. The townsfolk cocked their heads and blinked their bulbous eyes, croaking questions to each other as the aliens walked by.
Levort leaned over to Vobsii and whispered, “I thought you said we wouldn’t stand out here.”
Vobsii whispered back, “It’s Lodespace. They at least know about humans and Resluni, but none live in this village. We just look like strangers. Which, I’ll remind you, we are.”
A small Kurikoid leaped off the side of a nearby home and landed in their path. She was short, fresh out of the spawning ponds, with a long tail complete with a fin. She croaked, “Don’t-don’t see aliens here often. Why-why are you here in Phiburb?”
“Uhh…” Levort mumbled.
“Supplies. We’re travelers. Just passing through.” Vobsii fielded the question in a way that sounded practiced. He had clearly done this sort of thing many times throughout his various opportunities with Floem.
“Supplies-supplies…” The Kurikoid turned her head to inspect the strangers better with her large amphibian eye. “Then-then, follow me. I-I am called Darbles.” The short Kurikoid waddled down an alley. Levort and Vobsii shared a glance, then followed their host.
They walked down a mossy, stone-cobbled alley until they entered a small pocket lit by a singular streetlight featuring a humble supply store. Inside, the walls were lined with smooth slate, and devices sucked in excess moisture to keep the off-world products from molding too quickly. A few other Kurikoids mumbled around the store, eyeing the strangers as they came in.
Darbles hopped up onto a counter and rummaged through some things. “What-what sort of supplies?”
Vobsii looked around. “Food mostly. But we’ll take some Mubb and ship repair tools if you got it.”
Darbles nodded and croaked to one of the nearby Kurikoids. They came shuffling over, bumping into Levort as they scrambled by. “Buwwi-Buwwi! Watch-watch the customers!” Darbles straightened Levort out.
“It’s fine,” Levort said.
“Buwwi-Buwwi will help you find your supplies. You-you have hapron, yes?” Darbles asked.
Vobsii nodded and followed Buwwi around the store. They provided a three-wheeled crate to stuff things into. Levort looked around the store while Vobsii picked up the things they needed. It was a deeper building than it appeared from the outside. A staircase went upward, and behind the counter was a trap door that led to a cellar. Items were inside various barrels and pots that hung from the ceiling. More lumpy-sounding music played from a small music box hanging near the window as insects whizzed around the plants nearby.
Wherever Levort walked, he noticed Darbles watching. No doubt, the Kurikoid was suspicious of the strangers, and in return, Levort was wary of the Kurikoid. They had barely explored the town of Phiburb before being corraled into Darbles’s shop. No chance to see if their supplies could be found elsewhere.
After some time, more short Kurikoids entered the store and croaked greetings to Darbles. They were so similar in spots and speckles that they could have shared the same spawn pool. Levort reminded himself that these were not children, but also wondered who owned the shop. If these Kurikoids had recently left their spawn pools, someone else must have been operating the store before. Unsure of Kurikoid laws and store ownership policies, he dropped his wonder and focused his curiosity elsewhere.
After some time, Vobsii and Buwwi returned to the front of the store. “All set. This should keep us going for a few quarters at least.” Vobsii patted the top of the sealed crate. “We’ll take the container too.”
Darbles smiled and rang up their total on a crude mechanical device. Vobsii pulled a data chip from his jacket pocket and flashed it over the counter instead of using his sleeve for the transaction. Darbles croaked, “Thank-thank you. Safe-safe journies.”
Vobsii nodded and pushed the cart out the door. Levort followed. They left Phiburb the way they entered, not daring to explore more than they needed to. As they left the mossy village and traveled up the path to the portal, Levort asked, “They seemed nice. Right?”
“Sure,” Vobsii agreed. “But I’ll be happy to get back to Bloom. I feel like I’m starting to molt.”
It wasn’t long before they came to the small clearing in the fungi forest with the portal. Vobsii shoved the crate through, with Levort behind him. Vobsii whistled and patted the top of the container. “Floem! Got some Mubb for you!”
“Mubb!” Floem shouted and sat up straight, jostling Skipper’s flowerpot a little. She hadn’t moved much since they left. “Toss me some of that sweet-sweet Mubb!”
Vobsii opened the crate and searched its contents for the fermented mud and algae concoction popular in the Fleet. At the same time, Levort reached for his gateslinger to shut down the portal to Kurika.
Levort’s soul spilled from his body when his hand patted his hip. He searched himself, slapping his hands all over his prospector cloak and turning to check every angle. Vobsii’s smile shifted to a frown.
“Don’t even say it…” Vobsii shook his head.
Levort sputtered the words. “The gateslinger is gone!”
TWENTY-ONE
When did you see it last?” Vobsii asked.
Levort hustled behind him as they hurried back to Phiburb to find the missing gateslinger. “I put it back in my holster right after we made the portal.” Levort remembered, but even his memories felt false given the current circumstance.
“Had to be that Darbles kid!” Vobsii pounded a fist into his palm.
Levort didn’t bother saying something like, “You insisted they aren’t kids!” and kept his mouth shut.
They returned to the streets of Phiburb and noticed the distinct lack of Kurikoids. They had just been here barely a half hour ago, yet the town felt suddenly abandoned. Levort’s suspicion escalated, and he wished he had brought a weapon. He knew if they stalled too long, the Kurikoids could accidentally make new portals and potentially cut themselves off from Kurika, stranding the gateslinger somewhere in the cosmos and leaving a doorway to Bloom wide open forever.
A croak from above alerted Levort and Vobsii. They snapped their attention up to a nearby rooftop in time to see a small shadow dip out of view. Levort whispered, “Is the whole town in on this?”
“Not gonna stop me!” Vobsii shouted and marched down the alley toward Darbles’s store. The Resluni kicked open the front door, knocking it off its hinges and sending it crashing into a barrel full of canned Mubb. The trap door behind the counter slapped shut. “You can’t hide, Darbles!” Vobsii shouted.
As Vobsii ripped open the trap door, he was struck with a stun bolt from across the room. The Resluni shook violently, then slumped into the open trap door, falling out of view. Levort spun around to see Darbles swinging toward him, feet first. Levort didn’t have time to dodge and was drop-kicked in the chest. He fell through the trap door and smashed into Vobsii.
“Ugh… Get off’a me!” Vobsii grunted, recovering from the stun. He shoved Levort off, sending him splashing into dark, dirty liquid. The cellar was submerged in three-foot-deep stagnant water.
“What is this?” Levort asked.
“Looks like an indoor spawning pool…” Vobsii whispered.
A light flashed on, and they found themselves surrounded by short Kurikoids. Darbles flopped into the water and hopped back toward the far wall to sit on a large throne positioned atop a pile of loot. The mound of stolen objects was piled up to the cellar’s ceiling. Levort’s uneven footing implied more treasure lay below the water. Levort recognized many Fleet trinkets and tools, but something else caught his eye.
Behind the throne was a flat data tablet with strange lettering. Levort recognized some of the symbols, having seen them before on the shell of the gateslinger. He couldn’t read them but knew them when he saw them. Levort assumed the tablet must be some sort of Beyonder technology—yet, that was not a gateslinger or a tracker. He remembered Wolil mentioning important data tablets that Gulna had destroyed to censor the Beyond. Whatever was on that thing was important enough for him to wipe it from Lodespace.
“You-you should not have come back, Fleet tourists!” Darbles twirled the gateslinger in her hand and smiled. “We-we sent you on your way. Phiburb-Phiburb has nothing else for you now.”
Vobsii stood, bumping his head on the low ceiling. He shook off the pain and grunted, “You stole our…our…”
“What-what did we steal, exactly?” Darbles apparently didn’t know what the gateslinger was. Levort remembered that the Kurikoids were technologically stuck in a primitive age. They had Fleet tools given to them, but they had not built nor understood much else.
Thinking fast, Levort tried, “Our magic shooter!”
Darbles huffed. “Try-try a little harder.”
Vobsii shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. That’s our thing, and we want it back.”
The Kurikoids that lined the room hopped closer, enclosing Levort and Vobsii tighter. Levort tried again. “Let’s make a deal. We have more hapron. We’ll pay for it.”
Vobsii whispered, “We don’t have more hapron.”
Darbles looked at the two strangers and said, “You-you don’t do this often. Do-do you?”
Levort looked at Vobsii and shrugged. Vobsii rolled his eyes and said, “Here we go.” The Resluni grabbed the nearest Kurikoid thug in one hand and hurled him at Darbles. Darbles was struck by her fellow thug and smashed against the throne.
The gang lunged at Levort and Vobsii. They had strength in numbers, but Levort and Vobsii had reach and physical power. They batted off Kurikoid thugs left and right. Vobsii, covered in small Kurikoids, rushed the nearby wall and crashed into it headfirst, smashing three of the thugs at once against it. Above, the store creaked, and dust blew out from the basement made of stone and moss.
Levort pushed one Kurikoid off and kicked another in the face as it rushed him. He spun and struck another on his side, giving himself an opening. A light flashed as the stun gun Darbles used before went off. The blast missed Levort by an inch and struck another Kurikoid behind him. Darbles roared in anger, her composure ruffled.
Darbles lined up another shot, and Levort grabbed the nearest thug and pushed him into the line of fire. The Kurikoid was zapped and fell below the water, splashing and thrashing about. “Stop-stop that!” Darbles shouted in frustration.
Another Kurikoid came sailing over Levort from behind, thrown by Vobsii. Darbles leaped from her throne and landed on Levort’s head, smushing his face down into the dirty water. He pushed upward, lifting his head above water and throwing Darbles into the air. She landed on Vobsii’s arm and clamped her jaw down on it. Vobsii roared in pain and tried to pry her loose, but she held on tight.
Levort punched another thug out of the way and snatched the Beyonder data tablet behind the throne. It was large and heavy, and Levort needed two hands to hold it. He rushed over to Vobsii and brought the tablet down on Darbles’s head with a loud, wet thud.
Darbles went crosseyed and unclamped from Vobsii’s arm. Levort swung the tablet in an uppercut at the last remaining Kurikoid thug, knocking them hard into the wall, not noticing it was Buwwi until they slunk down against the stones.
Vobsii reached down and grabbed the gateslinger from Darbles’s limp hand. Groans and croaking could be heard all over the room as Kurikoid thugs struggled to regain their footing. Their croaking got more organized; it wouldn’t be long until the thugs were ready to attack again.
“Move it!” Vobsii shouted. The Resluni grabbed Levort by the back of his prospector cloak and heaved him through the trap door above. He tossed Levort the gateslinger, and Levort caught it, bobbling both Beyonder tools in his hands as he struggled to hold onto them.
A Kurikoid thug sprung up from the trap door, only to be yanked back down by Vobsii. There was a splash, then Vobsii jumped up from the cellar, scrambling to get through the trap door. Levort put the tablet and gateslinger on the counter and helped Vobsii up as Kurikoid thugs attempted to drag him back down. With a great heave, Vobsii tumbled into the room on top of Levort.
They scrambled to their feet. Vobsii grabbed the tablet and gave it a quick look of confusion while Levort holstered the gateslinger. He saw Vobsii’s eyes go wide as the Resluni figured out the importance of the strange device. “You don’t think—?”
“I do! Let’s run!” Levort shouted, shoving Vobsii from behind. They vaulted over the counter and rushed out of the store as Kurikoids burst from the cellar and scrambled close behind. Outside, windows opened their shutters, and older Kurikoids assaulted them with various thrown household objects.
“It never ends!” Levort shouted, guarding his head as a cooking pot clanged off him. Finally, they made it to the edge of town. The Kurikoids kept a furious pace, only a few hops behind Levort and Vobsii. They raced up the hill at the edge of the spawning pool valley and found the portal waiting for them.
Vobsii dove through the portal, with Levort following behind him. Levort crashed into a bed of flowers on Bloom, the sounds of furious croaks echoing through the portal. He rolled onto his back, grabbed the gateslinger, and pulled the third trigger. Light flashed from the device and slapped the mirrored gate, causing it to shrink and burst.
Then, it was quiet.
The early sunrise breeze whistled through the blossoming morning flowers. Levort unclenched his muscles and flopped back into the flowers. He felt the pain of various kicks and punches, but he didn’t care. He tried to settle his rapid breathing.
“So… How did it go?” Floem asked from her perch on the Tumbleweed.
Levort and Vobsii didn’t respond.
TWENTY-TWO
“What’d you bring me this time?” Floem lifted the strange Beyonder tablet out of the flowers. Levort sat up with his elbows on his knees. Vobsii hadn’t bothered to get up at all. The Resluni remained on his back.
Levort said, “I think it might be one of the lost data tablets the Beyonders used to pass around Lodespace. We got trapped by some Kurikoid thugs, and I noticed it in their pile of loot. Pretty sure they stole it off of someone else. Either way, it’s something Gulna Kii Fessenog missed.”
Floem rotated the tablet and said, “You might be right. Sure has a lot of that Beyonder language all over it, but it does us no good if we can’t decipher it with our fluency nodes.”
Levort sighed. “Well, at least we learned a lot going to Kurika. The first lesson; don’t bring the gateslinger through the portals. I think it's best we leave one of us here with the device in case things get messy on the other side. I should have left it with you, Floem.”
