Falling Stars Rising 22

Adapted from NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

“You stink,” Lhasa told Aleister with a fixed gaze.

Lhasa's older sister, Katrina, leaned over him and and began to sniff him. “It’s his male scent. It's musky like armadillo meat. It’s offensive (sniff), yet (sniff) oddly attractive (sniff).”

“Gross,” said Lhasa scrunching up her nose.

“Are you two done?” said Aleister leaning away from the pig-tailed girl who was now examining his beard and loudly chewing cherry-scented bubble gum.

“You know,” she said. “I’ve never smuggled a freeman into the Den. Plenty of misfits and outcasts, some mutants here and there, even a few ladies, but a freeman, it’s my first time. Fancy that.”

The shuttle cruised along a lake, illuminated by the bright light of Enceladus, the frozen moon orbiting Saturn, whose main rings were partly visible through the biosphere’s dome: sharp radial bands of golden-brown with a touch of gray, sketched on the dark canvass of space. A hazy outer ring surrounded Saturn. Enceledus coursed through it, emitting jets of icy particles and water vapor from its fractured south pole, and braiding the halo around the planet with its wispy tendrils.

“What’s your story anyway?” Katrina said. ”We’ve been traveling for three days and you’ve barely said a word.”

“Didn’t you say that a client’s business was none of yours?” said Aleister looking out at the lake.

“Usually,” she said leaning back and putting her feet up on the couch. “But I think for you, I’m going to make an exception. There are so many questions. Like, what is a freeman doing out here? Who is your domina and where is she?”

Enceledus’ light shimmered on the surface of the lake. The brightest object in the solar system, the moon was white with hints of yellow and blue, bewitching, scarred with azure “tiger” stripes on the south and pockmarked with ancient craters along the undulating barrens of its north face.

“If I understand correctly,” Katrina said, “you’re supposed to be meek, peaceful, certainly not mouthy, charming, and above all, you’re supposed to know how to please a girl. So why don’t you be a good boy and please me by answering my questions?”

Lhasa had not taken her eyes off the freeman. In spite of being the youngest, she was the shrewdest of the pair.

They had left Eden three days ago and arrived at the at Jaguar’s Den earlier that evening. A steamy world of dense jungle and waterways. Unregulated biota, tangled remnants of archaic specimens from an ancient earth. The only biosphere inhabited mainly by men, and thus as the joke went, the last bastion of toxic masculinity.

“Not that I owe you an explanation, given that you are a guest on our ship, but the reason I ask,” Katrina said standing up and going over to sit beside him, “is because we’ve heard some rumors.”

“What kind of rumors?”

“So he can speak,” she said in mock surprise.

“He’s not as stupid as he looks,” said Lhasa.

“No, he’s very clever for a man. Too clever. And if the rumours are true, he’s also very dangerous.”

“What rumors exactly?” he said.

“They say there’s a freeman on the loose… a freeman with fangs.”

He laughed, a sonorous rich laugh. When he stopped, he noticed that the sisters were looking at him with curious inquisitive looks. Realizing that he had let his guard down, he cleared his throat.

“I assure you, I don’t have any fangs.”

“A terrible liar,” said Katrina rolling up her sleeves and exposing her forearm. “Go on. Bite me.”

“Yuck,” said Lhasa, covering her eyes.

A swarm of lights crossed the skies, pinpoints around the moon, like fireflies glowing.

Lhasa lowered her goggles and adjusted the controls. “Looks like a flotilla of research stations… maybe water tankers.”

Seeing how Aleister wasn’t about to sink his teeth into her forearm, Katrina rolled back her sleeve. “In any case, the last thing I want is trouble with Big Mama’s goons. So if you got something to say, say it now while we can still rearrange the terms and conditions of our agreement.”

“A deal is a deal,” said Aleister.

She was about to retort when Lhasa said “look!” and pointed at a light in the distance heading towards the ship.

“Looks like your ride has arrived,” said Katrina. “Remember: Six lunar orbits. No more. No less. Be here or stay behind.”

“Got it.”

Aleister gathered his traveling gear and then watched the water craft approach the now still ship. The light soon revealed a hooded figure standing on a large floating leaf whose bow-stem had been carved into the head of a snarling jaguar.

He looked back at the sisters, and then without saying a word, jumped onto the leaf.

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