NAAN (The Rabanians Book 1) Read online

  “It will happen in the morning,” I said again, louder this time.

  “What will happen?” asked Daio.

  “The disposal,” I said.

  “Disposal of what?”

  “Of the garbage,” I said.

  “Yes, of course,” said Dug. I turned towards him and he smiled at me.

  My head started to spin. I didn’t know the drugs they gave me just before returning me to the cell were starting to work or if it was something else.

  "You’ll see in the morning," I said, then stood up and walked to the ladder on the wall.

  "You can sleep in my bed," said Daio behind me.

  "No, you better be prepared," I said and climbed the bars. He rushed to stand behind me in case I fell. I rolled onto the bed, closed my swollen eyes, and a deep sense of calm came over me. Sleep was not far behind.

  The sound of hydraulic engines woke me up. I sat up immediately. Hydraulic engines. That meant the hovercraft had already arrived. I hadn’t heard it coming. I jumped from my bed and landed on the floor, barefoot, Daio had just opened his eyes, but closed them again quickly. My thoughts ran through yesterday’s events: the Flyeyes, the Clinic, the monitor, and the layout of the cells. Everything was real. It wasn’t a dream.

  The engines sounded again.

  “Get up,” I screamed.

  Daio opened his eyes in panic. I turned to Dug and he gazed at me, his forehead wrinkled.

  “What is going on?” he asked.

  I shifted my face towards the wall and said, “They are taking out the trash.”

  “Sosi,” called Daio. I turned towards him. “What's going on?”

  “It’s time,” I said hesitantly and looked to the ceiling. I should have told them to get ready but I hadn’t been sure it was really going to happen.

  Suddenly an echoing, pounding shook the cell. This was followed by a few smaller bangs close by. I was turning back to Daio when we were suddenly lifted upwards. I lost my balance. I heard pipes ripping then we were swinging in the air.

  We were thrown all over the cell. The floor started to vibrate and the wall where Daio’s bed was lifted a bit. Light, from outside filtered through the small slot.

  “What's happening?” shouted Dug trying to hold on to something.

  The slot closed with a bang, and suddenly it was dark and quiet.

  “What is going on?” asked Daio holding onto the ladder on the wall. As if to answer all the questions, the wall moved again, this time faster until it completely detached from the floor.

  The cell started to rotate. The wall, hinged to the ceiling, gradually began to open until we were completely hanging in air.

  “Jump,” I shouted and jumped into the dark hole that appeared beneath us. I fell onto a big pile of garbage. The landing was painful, but it was nothing compared to the smell that assaulted my senses.

  Barefoot I slid to the bottom of the pile. I started to feel my way along until I hit a metal wall. I heard Dug shouting as he fell and a cry after he hit the garbage pile.

  “Slide down,” I yelled to him.

  I heard another fall, a quiet one. Probably Daio.

  “I think I broke something,” I heard Dug crying.

  “Slide down,” I yelled again.

  The doors above us started to close, and the little light we had gradually faded until darkness completely surrounded us.

  “Daio, Dug,” I called when the sound of the closing doors stopped. I heard sliding noises, and Dug groaning. I could tell he was getting closer to me from the noises he made.

  “Dug,” I called to him.

  “I am here.”

  “Can you see me?” I asked and went closer to him.

  "We are inside the damn garbage hovercraft," he said and leaned on me. "How the hell did this happen?"

  “Bad fall?” I asked. It wasn’t the time for long explanations.

  “I’m barefoot,” he said angrily.

  “Yes, me too.”

  “I think I broke something.”

  “I found a ladder!” I heard Daio shouting.

  “Daio, where are you,” I shouted.

  “Walk along the wall,” he shouted back.

  I held Dug’s hand and pulled him towards the wall.

  “Daio’s found a ladder, let's go…”

  “I heard him,” he cut me off, “I can’t breathe.”

  “We need to get out of here,” I said.

  He leaned his hand on the wall and we started to move.

  The hovercraft lifted off. Every change in its course or velocity shook us ferociously. We fell several times and I had to help Dug back to his feet. The smell was so bad it became a struggle to draw breath.

  “Daio,” I shouted just to get a feeling for how close we were.

  “Here,” he called back.

  The hovercraft changed course and the pile of garbage shifted towards us, pinning us against the wall. I helped Dug climb above it.

  “I can’t make it,” he said desperately.

  “Just a few more steps and we are there,” I said to him.

  “Sosi,” I suddenly heard Daio.

  “We’re here,” I called back.

  A hand touched me from above.

  “Over here,” he said.

  I looked up but I couldn't see him.

  “Here,” he said and put my hand on the ladder. “Climb.”

  “Dug is hurt,” I said.

  “I’ll get him. Climb!”

  I pulled myself up the ladder. The hovercraft changed course again and I found myself hanging from the ladder by my hands with my feet dangling in space. After a few seconds I felt as if all my strength was gone. The hovercraft stabilized and I locked my legs on the ladder and hugged the bar in front of me. I couldn’t move.

  “Climb!” shouted Daio from below. I looked down and barely saw them, close together, on the ladder rungs. The door above me started to open and fresh air rushed in. I took a deep breath and scrambled up the ladder. I could hear the hydraulic engines working. When my head cleared the lip I could see the hovercraft arm moving. Its free end disappeared from my sight and I heard pounding noises. A few seconds later the arm moved again and another cell was hanging from its end.

  “Another dump,” I yelled as the cell stopped above the opening. It slowly rotated and a flood of garbage cascaded into the chamber.

  “Jump on it,” shouted Daio from below. “Jump!”

  The cell was so close to me that even a small shift and it would smash me like a little bug. I reached out my hands and jumped towards the horizontal bars along the cell walls. I couldn't see what was happening with Daio and Dug. A few seconds later I saw Dug hanging next to me, and then Daio landed squarely on top of me. I almost fell. The three of us hung onto the bars of the steel cell as it swung back and forth on its way to the ground.

  As it dangled lower Daio jumped and I followed. Dug waited a bit longer and jumped onto his uninjured leg. We grabbed his hands and pulled him away from the cell as it touched the ground.

  We lay on the ground breathing heavily for few moments.

  Daio leaned over me. “Okay,” he said to himself and disappeared from my line of sight. I turned my head and looked at him. He lay beside me and I could see his chest heaving up and down.

  “Can someone explain to me what exactly just happened?” said Dug and groaned.

  Daio turned his head towards me and caught my eye.

  “They took out the trash,” he said and started to laugh. He was still breathing hard, and his laugh turned into cough.

  “What?” asked Dug.

  Daio sat up and looked around. He crawled to the steel cell next to us, and leaned against it.

  “How did you do it?”

  “I switched…” I said and took a big breath, “…the cells' addresses.”

  “The addresses…” said Dug. He tried to add something else, but the noise of hovercraft taking drowned him out. “You changed the addresses?” he said when it was gone.

  “I
didn't know if it would work. The addresses were in the terminal, but I wasn't sure the hovercraft used that data.” I took a deep breath.

  A few Flyeyes whirred past not far from us, but it was too soon for us to be in danger.

  “This is an airport,” said Daio.

  I sat up and looked around. A few hovercrafts were lined up in front of us. Behind them a field stretched as far as I could see. Massive shuttles were taking off and landing. The closest one was bathed in spotlights and a huge crane was loading large containers into the shuttle’s cargo bays. Long conveyors were trundling packages into the shuttle through three openings. We could hear people shouting and engines noises coming from the site.

  Daio stood up and walked towards Dug. “How is your leg?”

  “Hurt.”

  “Where?”

  “The ankle.”

  “You think it's broken?”

  “I can’t put any weight on it.”

  Daio gazed at me. “It will take them a few hours to discover your scrambling. After that I don't think it will take long to find us.”

  “What do you want to do?” I asked.

  He looked back at the landing field. "I don't know where this shuttle is headed, but wherever it is, it will be safer than here.”

  “You want to sneak into the shuttle?” asked Dug.

  “You have a better idea?” replied Daio. “At least it will buy us some time to get organized. You and your leg, Sosi with his swollen face, everyone is looking for us and we don't even have shoes on our feet. This is the best chance we have.”

  “Get organized,” mumbled Dug, “Organized for what?” he wondered.

  A few people were standing beside the shuttle and more were milling around the cargo bays, but I assumed there were other people there making sure everything is well organized there.

  The conveyers began to run empty at dawn. The crowd of people on the field thinned as well. The crane stopped working completely. Daio rose and walked to the edge of the cell.

  “It's risky,” said Dug.

  “It's the lesser evil,” said Daio. He looked at me. “Are you ready?”

  In answer I stood up and looked at the shuttle.

  “Go through the line of hovercrafts and wait for us,” He said.

  I looked back at Dug, “What about him. I can help him.”

  “Three of us will draw too much attention. Go!”

  I started walking towards the hovercrafts. It was still dark and with my limited vision I had to look down and watch where I was walking. From time to time I looked up at the shuttle. It grew taller and taller as I approached. I looked back once I was close to the hovercrafts. Dug was leaning on Daio’s shoulder as they both walked slowly towards me. I walked through the hovercrafts and kept watching the shuttle. There was no one there now that I could see. The conveyer close to me was stopped. I knew it wouldn’t be long until they retracted from the shuttle. A few long moments passed before Daio and Dug arrived.

  “I want you to climb this conveyer,” said Daio breathing heavily. “Get inside the cargo bay and hide."

  “Maybe I should take your place and help Dug,” I said looking at the way he was breathing.

  “You can hardly see where you are going. There is no time for chitchat. Move!”

  I turned around, watched the field for few seconds, then I took a deep breath and walked quickly towards the conveyer. I climbed on the black belt and started to walk along it towards the loading bay. I didn't look up, my face was glued to the belt out of fear I would miss a step and fall off. I heard a noise behind me but could not look back. It sounded like someone was doing something to the conveyer. I rushed forward into the entrance and into the relative safety of the shuttle’s cargo hold.

  There were periphery planets in almost every settled planetary system. The "periphery" was added to their name to differentiate them from normal planets. It also hinted at their low population, or their economic backwardness. In most cases these planets were not industrialized, and the signs of progress arrived there only after a long delay. For these reasons business dealings with periphery planets were limited, and the shuttles that arrived there were in many cases old and retired.

  Most shuttles landed on the closest technologically advanced planet and made sure that everything was in order before making the leap to a periphery planet. These tests were essential since it wasn't possible to carry out major repairs on such backward worlds. Any shuttle that broke down during landing, or takeoff, was most probably was doomed to die there.

  A testament to this reality was the dozens of rusty shuttles lying in the endless space around Naan airport. The shuttles were rich with precious materials and hundreds of looters and metals dealers pounced on new arrivals like starving animals around a vast carcass.

  Shuttle 442, landed on Naan directly from Seragon despite standard procedures dictating it should first stop on the nearby planet of Mampas.

  The shuttle had gone through major renovations before this trip, and its captain felt its new control and safety systems made the additional stop unnecessary.

  After shutting down its engines a sliding platform opened just below the door in the topmost deck. A waist high handrail unfolded from its three sides. The captain, his two pilots, and a few crewmembers stepped out and looked around. From the high platform they had a great view and the harsh wilderness surrounding them struck them so hard that they just stood there speechless.

  “What a horrible place,” one of the crewmembers mumbled to himself. He was the youngest and this was his first visit to one of the periphery planets.

  “Don't worry, we have no intention of staying here any longer than we need to,'” said the captain. He looked at the wrinkles on the wide face of the cargo manager. “It's in your hands. The faster we unload the sooner we can get out of this hole.”

  They heard the rattle and bang of an approaching vehicle and turned back toward the line of vegetation. In the distance they could see an old truck towing a rusty conveyer in their direction. A line of large and small trucks coughed and sputtered behind it. From another access road a heavy crane’s engine roared to life and they all turned toward it.

  The cargo manager turned to face the parade approaching the shuttle. “One conveyer,” he said shaking his head. He became nervous and turned to one of his lieutenants. “Get your people to the loading dock and steer that conveyer in. It doesn't have any proximity sensors and I don't want it to even touch us." He looked at the other crewmembers. “You know what to do, so let's get to it.”

  The conveyer was lined up with the rear loading docks after just a few moments. The trucks took up positions along the length of the shuttle, waiting for the crane to arrive. The condition of the old trucks astonished the younger members of the crew and they joked with each other about what held them together. They all stopped and looked outside when the conveyer belt started to roll. It made a shrill squeaking noise that faded after a while but didn't completely vanish.

  We slipped to the front of the shuttle and I immediately felt tightness in my throat. We didn't talk and stayed as quiet as possible. I stopped for a quick breath when we reached the lower levels. I thought my shortness of breath was due to all the excitement. We knew we were now on the other side of the galaxy, but we had no idea what to expect. We walked past the control room and noticed the crewmembers looked very busy. We took the stairs to the lower deck that none of the crewmembers ever used. From the lower deck we dropped down the ladder that led to the landing gear. We went down as fast as we could. The whole time the tightness in my throat grew and with it my breathing became rapid and shallow. I looked over at Daio and Dug. They were breathing fast as well and I realized this was not merely excitement but something else. Odd noises were approaching the shuttle from the other side. Daio pointed towards the tall bushes along the border of the landing field and we all started to run towards them. I was completely out of breath soon and my legs became heavy. I went through the bushes and went down on my knees. D
aio and Dug were no better off, barely limping forward. Daio stopped just in front of the bushes, panting.

  “What… is going on…here?” he asked his hands on his knees.

  “Where are… we?” asked Dug limping past him.

  “Come on,” I said looking at them from the bushes. I saw the trucks and other equipment approaching the shuttle and worried someone would see us.

  “I think it's the air…it's very thin here,” I said.

  Daio rose and walked forward until he passed me.

  “What is this place?” asked Dug as he hurried to join us behind the bushes.

  “I don't know,” said Daio, “If it's lack of oxygen...we'll adjust.”

  My face was much better, and so was Dug’s leg. We had found food in two refrigerators and also in a box we broke open in the main cargo hold. “Dried food” was stamped clearly on the side of the box. Later I wondered why preserved food was on a cargo shuttle. We’d also found a few clothes and shoes in a closet in one of the corridors between the cargo holds. We thought they probably belonged to the crew and we were worried for a while that they would miss them. Fortunately they never came looking.

  We had splinted Dug's leg with some small pieces of wood and some bandages we found in one of the first aid cabinets. The journey had taken several weeks and we’d arranged beds in a cargo room that was packed with boxes. Our hidden beds were unnecessary however, as the crew always stayed on the control deck. We never saw them for the entire flight.

  We rested behind the bushes for a while. Then, on the far side of the shuttle, there was a strange tumult of engines noises. By then we had finally caught our breath, so we started to move away from the field. There was a small hill not far away. Daio pointed towards it.

  “Let's climb,” he said. “See where we are.”

  In spite of our breathing problems we couldn’t help thinking that the worst was behind us. We had had plenty of time to talk about our situation during the voyage. We assumed that Seragon didn’t know where we were because if they did, they would have contacted the people on the shuttle and they would have searched for us. Since we’d made it this far, we hoped that we would be able to escape from the shuttle without being seen, and mingle somehow with the local people. If we were lucky no one would ever find us.