Ascending - James Alan Gardner [130]
Uclod took one of Lajoolie’s arms and I took the other. Together we guided her forward. When we reached the airlock, Nimbus was already there, hovering in a foggy ball above everyone’s head.
“All right,” Festina said, “time to attack an entire shipload of hyper-advanced aliens on their home turf.” She sighed. “Why I love being a goddamned Explorer.”
“I too love being a goddamned Explorer,” I said, proudly fingering my black jacket.
“Oar,” Festina said, “you’re a total fucking lunatic. Fortunately, that’s exactly what we need.” She waved a hand at Aarhus, who was standing by the airlock controls. “Push the button, Sergeant. Immortality awaits.”
23
WHEREIN I CONFRONT UNPLEASANT TRUTHS
Lady Bell’s Personal Limitations
The door of the airlock opened—and the first thing I noticed was dirt. The smell of dirt, loamy and cloying; the sight of dirt on the ground, dark and glinting with flecks of minerals; the feel of dirt in the air, gritty and humid and hot. Festina, standing in the airlock doorway, took a moment to inhale the deep soil scent…then she threw herself outside and assumed an aggressive posture with pistol in hand, quickly scanning the area for hostile forces.
After five seconds, she gestured for the rest of us to join her. We clambered out into dank sluggish air that pressed most tepidly against one’s skin—all except Lady Bell, who remained shuddering in the airlock.
“What’s wrong?” Festina asked her.
The lady replied, “It’s horrid!”
She stared at the area surrounding us. It had the appearance of a vast tropical mud flat, simmering in twilight just after the sizzling sun has gone down. It even had some kind of foliage—not close to the ship, but off in the distance, clusters of trees and undergrowth rose high from the soil. Farther away still, dirt-covered walls towered up, up, up; in the dusky light, the top of the walls disappeared into shadow, but I assumed that far overhead there must be a roof closing us off from the vacuum outside. We were, after all, inside the stick-ship, even if this great chamber was so huge it seemed like out-of-doors.
“What is so horrid?” I asked Lady Bell. “The temperature is hotter than one enjoys, but there are no robots trying to shoot us. Also, in a spacious enclosure such as this, one can see potential enemies from quite far off, yet there is no sign of anybody. I believe for the moment we are safe.”
“Knock on wood,” Aarhus muttered under his breath.
“But…but…” Lady Bell said, “it’s so…raw. And open. And exposed.”
“Bloody hell,” Uclod said to Festina, “are Cashlings agoraphobic?”
“Now that I think of it,” Festina replied, “they put all their cities under opaque force domes—which is completely unnecessary on most of their planets. And my old partner Yarrun once told me he visited a Cashling city and wanted to leave the dome to see the countryside…but nobody knew if there was a doorway out. He thought it was crazy: they had a constant flow of people shuttling up and down to orbital space stations, but the Cashlings never went sideways, out into the trees and fresh air.”
“We don’t need trees and fresh air,” Lady Bell said, clutching one edge of the airlock doorway as if she were afraid we might drag her outside. “We’re civilized. Cities have all the necessities of life…and they don’t have insects. Or poisonous weeds. Or trees that might fall on you.”
“If a tree attempts to fall on you,” I told her, “jump out of the way. Trees are famed for their slow reaction times.”
Lady Bell ignored me. “I think…” she said. “I think I should check on my husband. Yes. That’s what I should do. He must be lying unconscious, somewhere inside. The poor darling. I’d better find him and make sure he’s all right.”
Without waiting for an answer, she pushed a button on the airlock control panel and the door swished shut in front of her. Uclod stared after her a moment, then made the odd hiss-whistle noise he and Lajoolie had produced just before vomiting. Obviously, this was his race’s expression of supreme disgust. “I was