Lightship Chronicles Chapter 3 : The Fruity Dance

it has a hump where it stores fat and water. A well fed alcama can go without food for nearly two months, and no water for two weeks. The hump is also where human riders sit. It is soft and comfortable and has few nerve endings making anything carried on the hump more comfortable for the animal. Its legs are long and it has three hoofs, a big one in the middle on which it walks on solid ground, but with two smaller ones, a few centimeters higher up and back near the "ankle", that spread out when laid flat creating a wide "flat foot" for walking on lose sand. They are a desert creature, but they also love water and when they find a pond they will go for a dip whether their human handlers want them to or not, and are very good swimmers.

  "Hey, reality to Andee, are you still in this world?"

  "What?" Andee pulls back from his distant stare at the alcama caravan.

  "You were zoning off to the moon again."

  "No, I was just..."

  "Thinking about all the old chicks you're going to impresses with your stumbling and fumbling." She interrupts him then ends her words with a goofy inquisitive look. "Like you've been doing all day."

  "No I was..." But this time Andee loses his train of thought.

  "Dancing with moon-ferries?" Nayaa finishes his sentence still making big goofy eyes at him.

  "Man, you've been on my case all day today. Can you give it a rest?"

  Nayaa makes a sad child like pouting face. "OK, I-sorry."

  Andee shrugs her off looking away frustrated.

  "Ok-ok, so what were you thinking about? Seriously." Andee ignores her. "Please? Come on, I'm serious. I really want to know."

  "No you don't."

  "I do actually. I'm being serious." Expressing herself with genuine interest.

  "If I tell you you'll just find another way to ridicule me over it."

  "That's true." Nayaa responds mater of fact. "But you need to snap out of it. If that's what it takes... that's what it takes. So, what were you thinking about?"

  Andee locks his eyes to hers with a hard penetrating glare. She doesn't flinch. "Ok, if you really want to know, I was thinking about Tony."

  "Tony?" Her head taken aback. "The alcama? Uh, why?"

  "That's what I was thinking about."

  "You are punk out weird today. You seriously need to snap out of it." She states with a clearly serious tone. Andee turns away from her. She whacks him in his right shoulder. "I mean it, snap out of it."

  "I don't care if you don't believe me. But..." Andee cuts himself off in mid sentence.

  "But what?"

  "That... that guy in the blue robe! It's just... its like..." He's struggling with his words his face convulsing in frustration.

  "Like what?" But Andee shakes his head with no answer. "You really are freaked out." She then concedes.

  "Of course!" He snaps. "I'm not crazy! And I'm not just imagining him. I don't just see things that aren't there, and..." He cuts himself off again.

  "And what, come on."

  "There's something off about him."

  "Like, uh-he's not there?"

  "You can't stop can you? No, what I meant... you said it this morning. Sometimes you just know. You just feel it. This guy, I know he's real, but the worst part, I'm absolutely sure that he's watching me. He's following me."

  Nayaa quickly looks over her shoulder. She then exaggeratedly looks left, right, all over the place, up in the sky, everywhere, all with exaggerated movements of her body. She rushes to a boulder ahead, lifts one side and looks underneath, than looks back to Andee with big round shocked eyes shaking her head with exaggerated concern. Andee can't help but giggle.

  "Ha, I made you laugh." She snaps to her feet and walks back next to him.

  Andee nods his head and takes a deep breath. He looks ahead. The sad looking older man leading the Alcama caravan is now just a few meters from then.

  "Maybe he saw the blue guy." Nayaa nudges her chin to the man, and then without warning jumps ahead, stepping in front of Andee, and rushes up to the man before Andee can react. Andee freezes and stares at her frowning, downright fuming.

  "Excuse me sir. I'm sorry to interrupt your journey, but may I inquire you about something?" Nayaa asks with exaggerated politeness.

  "What? Uh, yeah, what do you want kid?" The scruffy older man lifts his eyes off the ground as he answers seemingly perturbed by the intrusion.

  "Have you noticed any loud noises back the way you came? Music and such." She asks with a sweet and friendly tone.

  Andee releases a deep breath and his face softens upon hearing the question.

  "Makes sense. Kids out here. You're looking for the prave."

  "Yup." Nayaa answers unabashed.

  "Sure, it's back there somewhere. Near dome rock over there." Pointing behind him and to the south past more warehouses.

  "Thank you sir. May you have a wonderful evening and a joyful journey." Nayaa answers continuing with her exaggerated polite tone.

  "Yeah, sure, joyful." The man scoffs under his breath as he takes a good look at Nayaa. He then stretches his left cheek out to her tapping it with his finger. "Plant a kiss right there pretty lady, and I'll be real joyful."

  "Don't push it old perv, but thanks anyway. And yes, I am a lady." Then looks back to Andee, and with a taunting turn of her head, gives him a 'see how mature I am' look.

  Disappointed, the man moves on with his caravan while Andee cracks a snarky smile.

  "I can't believe I forgot." Nayaa blurts out.

  "Forgot what?"

  "Dome rock. I know it. My brothers used to tell me all about it."

  "I've heard of it too, and I think I know where it is. I'm sure it's visible from the outcrop. The lightship circuit isn't far from it. It's got to be over there, past those warehouses." Andee points southwest.

  Carpatia's four hour long twilight is long gone and darkness has settled. With no moon the night it is as dark as it can get on this world, which is not quite that dark. There is a gentle purplish glow all around the horizon, while the sky is a very dark navy blue. The light of the giant red sun still lingers, diffracted by the atmosphere, just enough to make night on Carpatia a darkened purplish-blue world of shadows with hardly any stars. Only a handful have the power to glitter through the lingering sun's glare.

  There is lingering light but luck is not with Andee and Nayaa this evening. After following the man's advice they have just reached a dead end. The alley they followed is walled up with warehouses on the left, and closed in by a huge fence on the right. Worse yet, at the very end of the alley, between them and dome rock, is the biggest warehouse so far.

  They stare at the structure between them and their destination. It is very different than any of the warehouses they've passed so far. It looks well built from modern metals and polymers. There is not a splatter of adobe anywhere on it, and it's clean an in perfect condition. The front section is only two story, but with a sloping roof up towards the much larger rear section that extends far beyond what they can see.

  "What now?" Nayaa asks looking up at the giant windowless building in front of her.

  "Dome rock should be pretty much on the other side of this thing." Andee answers studying the features of the structure. "It kind'a looks Bitani doesn't it?" He half mumbles his question then looks to Nayaa. She shrugs her shoulders seemingly unconcerned, then resolves the problem.

  "I guess we go over."

  "I guess we do." And with that both start climbing. The walls have little grooves, just big enough for finger tips, and protruding fixtures such as lights and a pipes. Further up there are a few setbacks. Both these human ghimurs clamber up the wall with no difficulty. They run up the sloping roof but when they reach the wall of the much larger rear section, there is no way up. It is a smooth six to seven story wall, all the way up to the gabled roof and with nothing to grip. Dome rock is beyond and to the left of this large building, but the left side is just more wall to wall tall structures, all of them behind their smaller front facades. So they head to the right, and cli
mb down into the long narrow courtyard between this and the next warehouse.

  "I haven't seen any security around here." Nayaa observes after they hop to the ground.

  "I noticed. They probably have recorders."

  "What would they look like?"

  "I don't know. But lets stick to the wall and stay in the shadows." Following the line of the wall Andee looks past its end at the wide open spaces beyond it, where the dark purple horizon is visible. "Once we're past this warehouse we should be clear. It looks like this is the last building before open desert."

  "Man this thing is huge." Nayaa follows his eye line.

  "I know, lets go." Nayaa nods in agreement and follows Andee with her back against the wall.

  They scoot cautiously but the warehouse is long. Half a kilometer at least. After a while they start walking more casually, but still staying close to the wall and hopping from shadow to shadow. The corner end is not far now.

  "You hear that?" Nayaa stops and listens. The faint sound of the electronic base is thumping in the distance.

  "I do."

  "We're almost there."

  When they reach the end of the warehouse the empty desert beyond opens up. They can clearly see dome rock off to the left as a black silhouette over the purplish horizon, but it's still far, at least an hour's walk.

  They are casually walking away from the large warehouse under Carpatia's bleak sky. Nayaa suddenly squints and stretches her face forward. She can see what looks like a string of faint lights, parallel with the horizon, between them and dome rock. They seem to start from one edge of the industrial park all the way around to the other,