Starship Fall

Eight

We saw each other, day and night, for the next few days. I showed Carlotta around Magenta, then drove her into the mountains to experience the rockpools which were continually filled by the crystal clear waterfalls that tipped from level to level. We swam in the cool water of the pools and made love as the sun set, before picnicking naked then driving back to the Bay and drinking in the Jackeral until the early hours.

I was deliriously happy, like some love-smitten teenager. Carlotta told me about her childhood, the supposedly privileged upbringing of a pampered child, which in reality was a soulless time of being looked after by hired nannies while her mother and father jetted around the world making their famous movies. She recounted her days as a holo-movie star, the paradox of believing in her art and yet despising most of the people in the industry.

In turn, I told Carlotta about my childhood in Vancouver, my obsession with space and the starships that crossed the void.

Those few days were a happy period, and the intimacy, the trust of another human being, made me realise what I’d been missing for years.

A few days later, around eight in the morning, Carlotta jumped out of bed, cursed the clock and told me she had to be in MacIntyre by nine to pick up a delivery from the Telemass station. I offered to drive her, but she said she didn’t want to impose on me. She suggested we meet for drinks and dinner at the Jackeral around six, kissed me and hurried from the villa.

I dressed and made my way home, showered then sat on the balcony of the Mantis and ate a leisurely breakfast. I was, to tell the truth, still in a daze, and looked back over recent events as if they were a dream.

I went for a long walk after breakfast, anticipating six o’clock when we would be together again. I could not stop thinking about the woman, and wondered what the future might hold. I found myself considering the film about her ex-lover, Ed Grainger, and I wondered how Carlotta had been portrayed in Starship Fall. On impulse I downloaded the movie from the Net and sat back on the chesterfield with a beer.

The trailer promised an enthralling story of alien adventure, love and tragedy, which was pretty much the tale Carlota had told last night.

The first third of the film was an adventure story set on the movie-maker’s impression of Chalcedony, an exoticised vision of alien fauna and purple mountains I would never have recognised as the real thing. Grainger was portrayed as a monomaniacal adventurer who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted. Carlotta was referred to in the first part of the film through the device of Grainger sending voice-messages to her while in space, and gazing longingly at a moving cube image of his dusky-skinned lover, played by an Indian actress.

The story had Grainger meet the aliens, only to become hooked on the bone-smoking ritual, the need to see the future. The film portrayed intrigue between the human and inimical elements of the Ashentay◦– and even a brief interlude of romantic interest with a native girl, which I assumed was the director’s invention. Another fabrication, I guessed◦– at least, Carlotta had never alluded to it◦– was that he stole from the Ashentay a small statue of immense religious significance to the aliens, which he intended to sell in order to subsidise his ongoing explorations. He also appropriated a cache of the alien drug, to satisfy his craving.

The second third of the film was set on Earth, and documented his love for Carlotta interspersed with psychotic episodes. Carlotta came over as nothing more than a love-sick beauty, there merely to provide token romantic and sexual interest. A more sophisticated aspect of the film was the portrayal of his drug-induced visions of the future, which left the viewer guessing which one might come to pass.

In the end, against Carlotta’s tearful protestations, Grainger sailed his ship back to Chalcedony, and in this version of events he rendezvoused with the religious elders in the sacred cavern. In a twist, it was revealed that he didn’t sell the religious statuette as he’d intended, but returned with it as a gift for the Ashentay. In the finale, he partook one final time in the smoking of the bones, and the film closes with alternative endings◦– two very different visions of the future. The first had him succumbing to an overdose of the alien drug, while in the second he was reunited with Carlotta.

All in all, Carlotta’s assessment of the film as a trite and sentimental was pretty much spot on, and more frustratingly from my point of view it told me nothing about Carlotta herself. Perhaps I was naïve to have hoped it might, but the fact was that I wanted to know more about the woman who, despite myself, I was falling for… or perhaps I was doing no more than falling for the glamorous image of the woman she presented to the world.

I was staring at the end credits when a chime announced that I had a visitor. I wondered if it might be Carlotta, and my heart began a laboured pounding. I turned off the screen◦– not wanting her to see that I had been watching the film, for fear that she might accuse me of prying into her past… which was ridiculous, I know.

I hurried from the lounge, took the drop-shaft to the entrance and hit the control to open the sliding door.

It was not Carlotta standing on the threshold, I saw with disappointment, but Kee.

And only then did I recall what she’d said as we parted a few days ago, and my curiosity was rekindled.

“Kee, well… this is a surprise. Why don’t you come in?”

She smiled timidly and hurried past me. She wore only a sand-coloured shift, and was barefoot, her arms and legs covered with fine golden hair. We rode the elevator together, but she didn’t meet my gaze.

For all that I’d known Kee for five years, and come to like her a lot, she always struck me as being intimidated by my presence; her body language and mannerisms were reserved, shy… though I know I should not ascribe human attributes to an alien people.

We entered the lounge and she sat on her favourite seat by the viewscreen which overlooked the bay. She’d made the seat her own on her many visits with Hawk, Matt and Maddie, and would stare out at the view for ages on end while we drank and chatted away.

“Can I get you something to drink, Kee?”

“A sava juice would be nice, thank you, David.”

I fixed two cold juices and sat opposite Kee. “It’s nice to see you,” I said, somewhat uneasily. “You gave us a bit of a fright the other day, I can tell you.”

Her large-eyed, thin-lipped alien face turned my way, and I wondered what was going on behind those piercingly azure eyes.

I cleared my throat. “You said you needed to see me about something.” I took a sip of juice.

She inclined her head. She employed human gestures tentatively, uncertainly, much as a stranger to the English language might use unfamiliar words.

She said, “The other day I saw the future. Or rather I saw what might be the future, or rather possible futures. Who knows which future might happen in this reality?”

She fell silent.

“And?” I prompted.

“And the difficulty is in knowing which future might happen. Our elders have a theory, perhaps you have heard of this theory? It is that all the futures we see when we smoke the bones will come to happen, in many different realities. Our elders say that we can make the future we want in our reality, through guiding events to the desired outcome, and by being virtuous and good.”

I smiled. “Our scientists have a theory that there are a multiplicity of differing words, an infinity of realities,” I told her.

She lifted a hand in an odd gesture, much as a puppet might perform the movement. “I saw three futures, David. Two were vague, while one was more… vivid. According to our elders, the more vivid the vision, the more likely it is to happen in our reality.”

“That makes sense,” I murmured. I hesitated, then said, “And what were these visions?” I stopped myself, and made a performance of hitting my forehead with the palm of my hand. “Sorry. I forgot. You can’t talk about them, can you?”

She smiled at my play-acting, appreciating the humour. “What I said the other day, about not being able to talk about them… I said that because Hawk was there.”

I felt a sudden apprehension. “I don’t see…” I began, though I did see, dimly.

She went on, “I can talk about what I saw, but I do not want to tell Hawk about what I saw. So, please, do not say anything to him. Do you promise?”

“Of course,” I said. “What is it, Kee?”

“I smoked the bones, David, and then I passed out. I experienced… oh, words cannot describe the wonderful feeling. It was bliss, it was… a word Hawk sometimes uses… eu- eu…”

“Euphoric?” I suggested.

She nodded. “Yes, euphoric. I was in a different place, and I was gloriously happy. And then the visions began.” She looked down at her hands, her fingers twisting.

“What did you see?”

She looked up, staring at me with massive eyes. She seemed frightened. “I saw Hawk. He was in the sacred cavern. You were there, and a tall woman with dark hair. I saw Hawk, standing beside the entrance to the chamber, and he was shouting at someone, and arguing…”

She stopped there, shaking her head from side to side as if in disbelief.

“What happened?” I prompted.

“And then… then Hawk was attacked. I think he was stabbed. He fell, holding his chest.” She was crying now, hunched and weeping. She shook her head. “Then the vision changed. I saw myself alone, and weeping.”

“Who attacked him?” I asked.

She shook her head. “The image was vague. I could not make out his attacker…”

I nodded, aware that my throat was dry. I told myself that what Kee had told me was no more than alien superstition, utter nonsense that had no rational bearing on how events in this world would play themselves out. I said, “And the other visions?”

She lifted her shoulders in a quick shrug. “In the other visions I saw me and Hawk, on an alien world, walking hand in hand beside a silver sea… and another vision showed me in old age, with Hawk looking after me…”

I gestured. “Well, there you are, then. Two of the three showed a happy outcome.”

She screwed her pretty face into a mask of anguish. “But the first vision, the strongest vision, showed Hawk dying. This means… this means that this is more likely to happen, unless we work hard so that it will not.”

I nodded, playing along with her. “And how do we do that?”

She said, “You must tell our friends, Matt and Maddie, tell them what I saw, tell them that Hawk must never again visit the scared cavern, yes?”

I nodded seriously. “Of course I’ll do that.”

“You see, if he does not go to the cavern, then he cannot be stabbed, can he? He will live, and I will be happy with him beside the silver alien sea, and we will live to old age together, which is what I want more than anything in the world.”

“I’ll go and see Matt and Maddie,” I promised. “I’ll tell them what you saw, okay?”

She smiled with relief. “But you must not tell Hawk that I have been to see you, David. Do not tell him about the vision, yes?”

“I won’t say a word to him, Kee.”

She smiled, and the expression lighted her face. “Thank you, David. I knew I could trust you.”

She finished her sava juice and looked down at the glass. “I feel better now. I will go back to the yard. Hawk is working on one of his ships, as usual.” She stood up.

“I’ll show you out,” I said, leading the way from the lounge to the drop-chute. We crossed the foyer and I slapped the sensor panel to open the sliding hatch, and Kee turned to me, stood on tip-toe and kissed my cheek.

“Goodbye, David,” she said, and turned.

She stopped dead, as if yanked back on puppet strings, and stared at my approaching visitor with wide eyes.

Carlotta stood before the ship, adopting an expression of superior amusement. Kee moved around Carlotta, watching her intently, then hurried away around the ship and out of sight.

And I suddenly recalled what she’d told me, minutes ago: You were there, and a tall woman with dark hair.

Carlotta turned to me and raised an expressive eye-brow. “And who’s your little girlfriend, David?”

I smiled, hiding my confusion. “That’s Kee, Hawk’s girlfriend. You know◦– Hawk, the pilot.”

“She seemed… shocked to see me, David?”

I shrugged. “She’s an odd creature,” I temporised. “She’s often uneasy around humans.”

“But not around you, I see.”

I decided to tell her the reason for her visit, omitting mention of the tall, dark woman.

“Kee underwent the bone-smoking ritual last week,” I said. “And me and a few friends followed her, hoping to find her before it began. Look, why don’t you come inside and I’ll tell you all about it.”

She nodded. “You didn’t mention this before, David.”

I led her into the ship and to the lounge. I poured her a sava juice and sat beside her on the chesterfield. “I’ve had other things on my mind, Carlotta,” I said. “Hey, you’ve stopped calling me Conway.”

She reached out and stroked my cheek. We kissed. She said, “Tell me about the sacred cavern.”

So I gave her the story, doing my best to describe the cavern, the aliens, and the strange ritual, or rather as much of it as we’d witnessed. She hung on my words, and I could see that she was imagining her ex-lover, the pilot Grainger, going through the same ritual.

“But why did the girl come to see you?” Carlotta asked. She opened her mouth in a silent, “Ah…” then went on, “It was about what she saw, yes?”

I nodded, and described what Kee had told me, editing the ‘dark woman’ from the account. I knew, rationally, that this could not refer to Carlotta, but even so I thought it best not to confuse the issue by mentioning it.

“And she said that Hawk’s death was the strongest image?”

“She did. Not that I hold much credence in it–”

Carlotta was looking at me oddly. “We scoff at mysteries we do not understand at our own expense, David. From what I know of the drug… well, there’s something in it.”

I stared at her. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

She nodded. “There were times, after Ed had smoked drug, when he’d make a decision that would turn out to be spectacularly correct.”

I laughed. “Intuition,” I said. “He had a drug-induced vision, believed in it so much that his strength of will brought about the desired result.”

She tipped her head, her lips screwed to one side in a maybe gesture. “Or perhaps the drug did grant him a foretaste of the future.”

I hesitated, then said, “When you smoked the stuff… you believed what you saw?”

“I told you what I saw◦– myself, alone… and it was enough to make me believe, and to beg Ed not to go…”

I smiled and shrugged. “Anyway, to be on the safe side we’ll make sure that Hawk doesn’t visit the sacred cavern in a hurry.”

She nodded seriously. “I’d do that, David. Now,” she said, with a lascivious smile, “I thought that kiss earlier was going to lead to something more.”

“I think perhaps it might,” I said.

Carlotta left a while later, arranging to meet me at the Jackeral that evening, and I realised that I’d never got round to asking what she’d picked up from the Telemass station that afternoon. I showered, dressed, and decided to visit Matt and Maddie and tell them about Kee’s visit.

I was about to leave the Mantis when the com chimed.

I accepted the call and the screen showed Maddie, grinning out at me. “What a coincidence,” I said. “I was just about to come over.”

“Do that, you old dog, and tell us all about it.”

“What?” I said, all innocent.

She laughed and said over her shoulder to Matt, “He says ‘what?’, as if butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth.”

“Word travels fast,” I laughed.

“Old Ben Henderson and his cronies saw you two leaving the Jackeral hot foot the other night,” she said. “And since then you’ve been inseparable. His crowd don’t miss much.”

“Anyway, I wasn’t coming over to tell you about me and Carlotta, Maddie. Sorry to disappoint you. But I had Kee here this afternoon. She was in a bit of a state.”

She looked alarmed. “Is Hawk okay?”

“He’s fine. Look, I’ll be over to tell you all about it. Get the beer chilled.”

I cut the connection and hurried from the ship.

I made my way around the bay to Matt and Maddie’s dome. The sun was high and hot, and by the time I arrived thirty minutes later I’d worked up a fair thirst.

They were sitting on the verandah overlooking the bay, and waved as I trudged up the sand. I climbed the steps and joined them, and Matt dutifully poured me an ice cold beer.

Maddie said, “You’ll be needing this, David.”

Deadpan, I said, “Yes, it’s a fair walk.”

“I wasn’t referring to the walk,” she said, touching a pair of binoculars on the table before her.

“I don’t believe it!” I appealed to Matt. “Does this woman have no shame? Spying on friends, now?”

Matt shrugged. “I don’t know what to do with her,” he said.

Maddie said, “So… you think this is the real thing, David?”

Before I could reply, Matt said, “We always think it’s the real thing, don’t we?” He stared out to sea. “That’s the beauty and the wonder of it, and sometimes the tragedy.”

Maddie laughed. “Listen to the philosopher!”

Matt hoisted his glass and smiled.

Maddie was still looking at me, eyebrow raised.

I said, “I… it’s early days. Who can tell? But it’s certainly intense.”

She reached out and squeezed my hand. “Good for you, David.”

Matt hoisted his beer. “To the happy couple.”

I took a long drink and licked froth from my upper lip. “About Kee… I don’t know, but it’s eerie…”

“Tell,” Maddie commanded.

I recounted Kee’s visit, her description of the visions. “She said she saw Hawk attacked and stabbed. She said he was in the chamber with me and a tall, dark haired woman when it happened.”

Maddie frowned. “Anyone she knew?”

“That’s just it. As Kee was leaving, Carlotta was paying me a visit◦– as you well know,” I said. “And Kee’s expression when she saw Carlotta… it was as if she’d seen a ghost.”

Maddie shrugged. “It might not necessarily mean that Carlotta and the woman in Kee’s vision were the same.”

“Well, it might not. But it struck me that Kee thought so. Anyway, she wanted me to come and tell you. We have to keep Hawk from the sacred cavern, at all costs.”

Matt said, “That shouldn’t be too difficult.”

Maddie was watching me. “What do you think about it… the ritual, this vision business?”

I shrugged. “Well, the rationalist in me thinks it’s bunkum. But that tiny part of me, the superstitious heathen in my hind-brain…”

“I know what you mean, David. Look at it from the Ashentay’s point of view. They’re conditioned to believe, and if they have visions which they do believe in strongly enough, then maybe the power of suggestion is so powerful that it might bring about the envisioned events. A kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.”

“That’s about where I stand on it,” I said. “But if Hawk did get stabbed in the sacred cavern…” I shrugged. “If that did happen, then I’d become a convert.”

Maddie said, “Presumably Hawk doesn’t know anything about this?”

“That’s right. Kee asked us not to breathe a word.”

“Poor girl. She must be in a terrible state.”

“Well, she doesn’t believe that what she saw was written in stone,” I said. “Her people believe that the visions don’t necessarily come to pass, that things can be done to circumvent them.” I shrugged. “The sight of Carlotta shook her, though.”

“Spooky.” Maddie shivered. “Another beer?”

We drank as the afternoon progressed, the conversation moving onto other things, and eventually back◦– perhaps inevitably◦– to my liaison with Carlotta.

Maddie said, “But you won’t leave us if she decides Magenta is too much of a backwater, will you, David?”

“Lay off!” I protested good-naturedly.

“Why don’t you stay for something to eat?” Matt asked. “We were thinking of having a barbecue. Henderson gave us a flat-head he caught earlier.”

Maddie laughed. “Don’t be so silly, Matt! David has other fish to fry.”

“At the Jackeral,” I said, groaning at her pun and examining my watch, “in under one hour. I’d better be off.”

“Tell us all about it the next time we meet!” Maddie called as I made my way from the verandah.

I smiled and waved and, as I wandered back through the scented pines, I thought how lucky I was to have such great friends… and now Carlotta.

I arrived back at the Mantis, dressed for dinner, and arrived at the Jackeral with ten minutes to spare.

Carlotta breezed in on the stroke of seven. Heads turned as she made her way to the bar, stunning in a yellow, off-the-shoulder dress with a flower of the same colour pinned in her hair. The dress complemented her mocha skin, and as if to emphasise the Indian in her she wore a crimson tikka-spot on her forehead.

She pecked my cheek in greeting and whispered, “Great to see you, David,” and I thought I was going to have a heart attack.

“Shall we have a drink at the bar, and then dine?” she said, sliding onto the bar-stool beside mine. “I’ll have the usual.”

I ordered another beer and a vodka and sava for Carlotta, and I asked her how her day in MacIntyre had gone.

“It was a success. I collected what I went for and miraculously it had survived the Telemass journey intact.”

“What was it?”

“It’s a secret, David. But I’ll show you later tonight, hm? That is, if you want to come back to my place?”

I smiled. “Try keeping me away,” I said, my curiosity piqued.

We drank and chatted and I felt totally relaxed in her company. The David Conway of just one week ago, had he been able to look ahead and see himself in the presence of this beautiful woman, would have been amazed; looking back, I had assumed I was happy then, but what I felt now was close to euphoria.

We had another drink and then moved to the dining area; I had grilled jackeral and Carlotta a local salad, and as we ate she regaled me with hilarious stories of the great and the good◦– and the not so great and good◦– she had met during her time as a world-famous holo star.

She laughed a lot, and touched me, and I compared her present mood to how unhappy she had been just days ago, and I marvelled that I had made such a difference.

I told her about my life in British Columbia, and she asked about my wife. I told her that the marriage had been happy, but that it had no way of surviving the death of my daughter.

She quickly touched my hand. “Don’t, David. I can see it still hurts. Tell me about the Mantis instead. I’ve seen the film, but I want the truth.”

So I told her how I’d bought the Mantis from Hawk’s junkyard, and how just days later I’d seen the first alien ghost aboard it… and how, a while later, the ghost of the Yall had led us to the miracle of the golden column.

“And to think,” Carlotta declared, at her most thespian, “I am intimate with the Opener of the Way!”

We laughed and drank and, come midnight, we were happily sozzled.

“And now,” she said, standing and swaying and pulling me up from the table. “Now I want to show you something. Back to

my place, my man.”

I allowed myself to be taken, and we slogged through the magenta sands which scintillated in the Ringlight, almost falling once or twice and laughing at our clumsiness.

At last we made it to her villa.

“Sit right there,” she said, pushing me into the sofa and swaying over me. “Don’t move, and I’ll show you… I’ll show you an invaluable work of art.”

I opened my mouth to ask what it was, but she shushed me with a long finger pressed to the crimson slash of her mouth, and tottered into the next room.

She returned a minute later carrying a box perhaps half a metre square. She placed it with exaggerated care on a small coffee table, then knelt on the carpet, reached out and touched something on the side of the box.

The sides unfolded as if by magic, revealing a small carved figure standing on a plinth.

I gasped. It was the religious relic which, in the film Starship Fall, Ed Grainger had taken from the sacred cavern.

“So that part of the film was true to life?” I began

She blinked at me. “You’ve seen it all the way through?”

I told her about the download. “But in the film,” I said, “Grainger returned here with it…” I shook my head. “But obviously not in reality.”

Carlotta stared at the carving, her eyes massive. She said, “What really happened, David, is that Ed sold the relic to finance his explorations. It went into the xenological museum in Paris. He tried to get it back when he decided to return here, but they weren’t giving it up that easily◦– and he didn’t have the cash they were asking for it.”

“So how come…” I said, gesturing at the statue.

“I made them an offer they couldn’t refuse, and for the past few weeks I’ve been waiting for the relevant authorities in Europe to sanction its release.”

“And now,” I said, “you can return it to the Ashentay as Ed would have wished?”

She smiled. “Closure, David…” She paused, then went on, “But I also want something from them, you see. It came to me that if I returned the relic, then they might help me locate where Ed’s ship landed, or crash-landed.”

I nodded, feeling adolescent jealousy despite myself.

Then I said, before I knew I was saying it, “I could help you, Carlotta. I mean, I know the way to Dar, the Ashentay village not far from the sacred cavern. I even know someone who could guide us the rest of the way.”

Her face illuminated. “David, you don’t know how much… Come here.” She reached out and took me in a passionate embrace, and seconds later she was sobbing against my shoulder.

“It’s been so long, David. So long, and I finally want an end to the… the grief. I want closure.”

“And then?” I asked.

She answered me, between kisses. “And.” Kiss. “Then.” Kiss. “Who knows what the future.” Kiss. “Holds?”

She dragged me to the bedroom, and all I could concentrate on was the glorious present.

In the morning, as the sun climbed and filled the bedroom with its golden light, we held each other and I suggested that later we drive down to MacIntyre and hire a bison.

I left her villa, arranging to pick her up in an hour, and hurried over to the Mantis. I showered and changed, and was about to dash out when the com chimed. I had half a mind to ignore it, but on impulse accepted the call.

Kee’s innocent child’s face filled the screen. She was leaning close, staring intently. “David!”

“Kee, what is it?”

“David, the woman I saw yesterday. She was the same woman I saw in my vision of the scared cavern!”

I shook my head. “Are you sure…?”

“David◦– please tell me. Are you going to the cavern?”

I blinked. “Ah…”

“David! Please◦– don’t go!”

“Kee, Kee, calm down. There’s no need to worry. Trust me. We’re merely going to return something that belongs to your people.”

She interrupted, “But the woman, David! I saw her in my–” She stopped suddenly and glanced, frightened, over her shoulder. Then I heard Hawk’s muffled enquiry, “What woman, Kee? Who are you talking to?”

“No one!” she almost screamed.

“Kee,” Hawk said, and I saw his torso behind her as he moved towards the screen.

“No,” Kee cried, and cut the connection.

I stood there for ten seconds, in a daze of indecision, wondering whether to call Hawk and explain the situation. In the end, not wanting to alert him to Kee’s vision, I thought it best to leave well alone.

I hurried from the dome and collected Carlotta and the boxed relic, and we drove south to MacIntyre in the glorious autumn sunlight.

One hour later, after hiring a bison and setting off inland, a combination of Carlotta’s exhilarating company and my rationalism persuaded me that Kee’s outburst had been nothing more than heightened alien superstition. I told myself that Carlotta might have born a passing resemblance to a woman in Kee’s drug-induced dream, but the idea that Kee had been granted a glimpse into the future was ridiculous.

“What are you thinking about, David?” Carlotta asked, resting her head against the back of the seat and gazing at me with loving eyes.

I smiled. “I was just thinking about how happy I am,” I said.