Twinks in Space: Destination Unknown - Part One - 27. Chapter 27 - Refugees

While outside their upgraded accommodations on the astro-ferry, Stawren was Ozo, Lyoth was Uzo, and Phentrom was Theni. The trio took their meals with the other passengers, and although it was not a pleasure voyage, it was pleasant enough. The ferry was only capable of traveling at 4 light speed, and the journey to Allthrin took almost 48 hours.

When the shuttle arrived, Lyoth and Phentrom were startled by the look of the planet.

“I’ve seen pictures of it,” Lyoth stated, “and I’ve read about Allthrin in books, but none of that does it justice.”

Stawren was smirking at the men. “I always enjoy bringing new people here. Everyone is surprised their first time.”

“It just looks like…” Phentrom began.

“It just looks like a barren rock,” Stawren finished for him with a laugh. “It’s hard to understand what a civilization could be like, developing completely underground, until you experience it.” She looked out over the landscape. “And it’s not barren; there are low shrubs that grow close to the ground, but their leaves are really dark, almost black.”

“Fascinating!” Phentrom replied, staring out the window. “I don’t see any entryways into the planet’s underground.”

“This ferry will take a shaft that leads to the largest spaceport that ever existed on Allthrin, the city of Bavport. The city is a shadow of what it used to be, but it’s become populated again because all refugees traveling here on these ferries arrive in Bavport. Most of them never leave.”

The ship approached the surface of the planet with no sign of stopping.

“Here we go,” Stawren said with enthusiasm. “This is pretty exciting.”

Phentrom and Lyoth felt alarmed that they could not see an opening for the ship to enter, but Stawren was still grinning at them. The massive ferry passed the point where it should have crashed into the planet, and suddenly the men were looking out its windows at the interior rock wall of a tunnel.

The ship slowed, and a moment later, it came to rest and docked on the primary Allthrin planetary landing station.

A voice crackled over the ship-wide speakers. “Welcome to Bavport. It is currently 11:42 AM local time. Thank you for journeying to Allthrin with us.” The speaker clicked silent.

Stawren, Lyoth, and Phentrom were dressed in their traditional Allarei clothing as they exited with the other refugees. The dense crowd of people moved away from the ship slowly, and it was more than half an hour before the trio stepped out of the building and into the vast Allthrin underground.

Lyoth let out a little gasp. “It’s incredible! I wish I could’ve seen your planet before the plague. I’m so sorry for everything your people have suffered.”

“Thanks,” Stawren said with an appreciative smile, “but it’s been over 10 years since anyone died of the plague, and I am confident that life will come back to a semblance of what it once was. I’ve never lived here, only visited a bunch of times as a kid. Then the plague happened, and I’ve been back a bunch more times again the past few years.”

“It’s an awe-inspiring civilization,” Phentrom added. “I’m so glad enough of a remnant survived so that society has been able to begin rebuilding.”

Most of the travelers who left the ferry now made their way into the city of Bavport, but a portion of them headed toward the tram instead.

“Follow them,” Stawren instructed.

“It’s too bad we can’t visit with Neptithia while we’re here,” Phentrom commented as the trio stepped up onto the tram’s station platform.

Stawren sucked her teeth. “Just bad timing. I didn’t know she was going to be leading a conference when we arrived.”

The station operator’s voice over the intercom interrupted their conversation. “The tram will be arriving in two minutes. Please, provide space for riders who are leaving the cars to exit. Thank you.”

An anticipatory energy began buzzing through everyone on the platform, as they all turned in the same direction to await the arrival of the oncoming tram. It came speeding up through its tunnel system, and it slowed to a halt with its cars extending along the station platform.

The doors hissed open, but very few people were inside, and the new arrivals to the planet crowded onboard. The doors closed again and it took off through the depths of the planet. The magnetic levitation that the tram rode was so smooth that it felt to those onboard like the vehicle was not moving.

“I’ve never ridden on a train like this,” Phentrom commented with wonder in his voice.

After less than ten minutes of travel, it came to its first stop, and quite a few people exited. Another eight minutes passed, and it stopped again. Many more travelers left the cars, and the trio had a little more space for themselves. In thirteen minutes, the tram stopped a third time, and most of the remaining people got off the vehicle.

With no one seated near them, Stawren felt comfortable discussing their plans. “The sun will set at about 6:30 this evening, and I’d like to figure out lodgings before it’s dark.”

Phentrom furrowed his brow. “How is it even light down here? I didn’t think of that until now.”

Stawren chuckled. “There are ventilation shafts all over the planet, and most of them have these light-trapper things. They don’t work well with other types of stars, but our red dwarf made our ancestors innovate. The light-trappers focus, filter, and redistribute the red light from above as intensified light below. Our red dwarf also gave the first Allthrins their Blue skin.” Stawren looked up at the digital display above her head. “There are only two stops left. We’re almost at the end of the line, and that’s a good place to start, but we’ve got a long way to go still to find what we’re looking for.”

The tram pulled up to the second to last stop, and all of the remaining passengers exited except a single other man seated in one of the front cars.

Lyoth, Phentrom, and Stawren were alone in their part of the tram.

“We’re far enough out,” Stawren informed the men, “that we can probably drop the fake names, unless we come across anyone official.”

Lyoth nodded. “I agree.”

“I know our original plan was just to get a starship,” Phentrom said, “but now we’re trying to replace the Ulaa-Lah with a new community vessel, and also a new community of people. Stawren, what do you suppose we’ll find when we get way out where you’re hoping to bring us?”

“There will definitely be some Allarei Homecruisers,” Stawren replied, and she warned, “also, the farther out you go, the more corpses there still are.”

“Corpses?” Phentrom repeated, swallowing hard.

“The plague happened so fast and killed so many people on the planet, and because folks refused to come here for so long, corpses have just remained in a lot of places. We’ll likely see some bodies as we get farther out.”

The tram arrived at its final stop and the trio exited. The solitary other man in the forward car also left without sparing the trio a single glance.

Lyoth looked around at the bright station. “This light is coming from above?”

Stawren laughed. “Come on, you two, let’s head this way. There’s a good chance we’ll be able to find a vehicle that we can reactivate in this parking structure.” She pointed at a space of underground wall, but Lyoth and Phentrom looked at it, confused.

“Where?” Lyoth asked her.

“You can’t see it?” Stawren replied. She shrugged. “You’ll get used to it.” She walked up and entered an open space that was not immediately noticeable.

“Oh, I see it!” Phentrom waved his hands at the wall above where Stawren had entered, and Lyoth realized there were letters. “It says garage,” Phentrom read.

They entered the stone-hewn building behind Stawren, and sure enough, rows and rows of ownerless vehicles sat collecting dust. There were signs that a few had been taken by other folks who traveled this far from Bavport, but the garage was still almost full of electromagnetic hovercraft vehicles.

“The technology of your people is truly stunning,” Phentrom declared.

Stawren walked along the row, inspecting each make and model, until she said, “Ah-ha! Now we’re talking! This one was designed for more rugged excursions, and I’m not certain what we’ll find as we make our way. Let’s see, now we just have to…”

“I can open it,” Lyoth stated. He stepped up and used a small blade to dismantle the handle.

The door unlatched.

“Nice work,” Stawren said.

The three of them climbed inside and she plugged her handheld device into the port of the dashboard. A prompt appeared and she entered a code. The interior display of the hovercraft flashed and then died. The engine clicked a few times and the lights flickered. Stawren pulled up a diagnostics menu on her device and recalibrated a few of the vehicle’s settings. She initiated the activation, and the craft came to life.

“Perfect! Let’s see if its self-cleaning is still functional.” The craft’s display consul in front of her was very clear. She pushed the button for anti-static, and the thick coating of greasy dust lifted off the exterior. Stawren initiated the electromagnetic levitation, and she eased the vehicle out of its parking space, leaving the cloud of dust behind. She guided the hovercraft through the parking structure and into the tunnels.

Lyoth and Phentrom had seen very little of the Allthrin underground when they first exited in Bavport before heading to the tram station, and the tunnels it took did not provide them views of the complex infrastructure. As they now floated along the spiderweb of interwoven tunnels that the people once used, the two men were astonished.

“How is this possible?” Phentrom asked. “How were your people capable of creating all this?”

“They say our ancestors used to be able to communicate with the stone,” Stawren replied with a little laugh.

No other vehicles traveled along the roads. They saw no people for quite a while, but the trio did begin to see corpses. Phentrom was the first to notice one, and he did a double-take when he realized the thing he had just seen, which looked like a skeleton, was precisely that. He did not respond in any way or indicate to the others he had seen it, but Lyoth soon noticed some as well. As they rolled past the remains of several dried corpses left for dead by the side of the road, Lyoth took Stawren’s hand and said, “I’m so sorry.”

She gave him a half-smile, and the journey continued. They saw quite a few more dead bodies, but they also saw someone still living. A single gray-haired woman was sweeping the front porch of a stone house. She smiled and gave the travelers a little wave as they passed, but she turned her back to them and continued her task without showing any interest in meeting them.

Stawren drove until the vehicle’s clock read 4:30 PM. She intended to travel an hour farther before trying to find a place for the evening, but she noticed two large piles of stones flanking a secondary tunnel, and she slowed the hovercraft. The side path was clearer of debris than any other portion of their journey that afternoon. Stawren stopped the vehicle. She was concentrating.

“One of the constant maintenance issues that people inevitably have to deal with in the underground,” she commented, “is rocks falling from above. There has been quite a lot on the roads already, but this hovercraft I chose is made to deal with what we’ve encountered so far.” She looked up the side street. “But this is being maintained. Someone is keeping the area clear.”

“Do you think there are inhabitants in this region?” Phentrom asked.

“I mean, I guess so,” Stawren replied. “We are pretty far out from any resources that this planet has to offer at this point in its struggle. I don’t know what or who we’ll find.”

She turned onto the tunneled street and drove between the piles of stone. After a moment, buildings came into view, and Stawren pointed out the front window of the vehicle. “A lot of our towns and villages were set up in very similar ways. Look, those over there used to be cafés and restaurants.” She pointed in a different direction. “And those were our centers of learning…” but she was interrupted as a trio of jolly Blue-skinned men came scurrying out from another pathway.

“Welcome to the town of Ebivon!” one of the men shouted. Another was holding a flag above his head that was vibrant and multicolored. The third was beaming at them and waving enthusiastically.

“Should we stop and say hello?” Lyoth asked

“I think they look just charming!” Phentrom declared.

Stawren slowed the vehicle, parked, and they all climbed out.

“Welcome to Ebivon,” the man repeated. “I am Orzin, and these are my husbands, Devok and Tizzu. Welcome to the town where I grew up!” he declared with a beaming smile. “It’s definitely not what it once was, but I’m proud of it.”

“And we’ve enjoyed our quiet life here,” Devok added, “slowly rebuilding this once beautiful community.”

“You’re welcome to stay here in town as long as you’d like,” Tizzu added. “And aren’t you two fellas adorable? I would just eat you right up!”

Lyoth smirked and asked, “You three aren’t cannibals, are you?”

The Blue men burst out with cackling laughter.

“Oh, gods! That’s a first!” Orzin said through his giggles.

“Never been questioned about that before,” added his husband Devok, snickering.

“Hunnies,” Tizzu said to the three new arrivals, “look around. We’ve cleared away the rubble. We’ve cared for and laid to rest the remains of the former inhabitants of Ebivon.”

“And we’re just a bunch of lovers!” Orzin added. His husbands hugged him on either side, squeezing him between them to his delight.

“Why don’t you tell us your names,” Devok recommended, “and we can all go from there.”

Stawren stepped right up to him. “I’m Stawren,” she declared. “My father is a Blue Allarei.”

The three men became excited, and Orzin replied, “And both of you survived the plague? How wonderful!”

“We were living off-world. I wasn’t born here,” Stawren admitted, “and I’ve never actually lived on Allthrin.”

“And what a lovely name,” Tizzu added. “We only get star wrens around here in springtime.”

Phentrom followed Stawren’s lead and introduced himself to the men. “My name is Phentrom, and I am very pleased to meet you three. This fellow is Lyoth,” he added, stepping up and taking his hand.

Orzin smiled. “So, now that we’ve established that we’re not cannibals, what brings you way out to this old hole in the ground?”

“We are actually headed farther,” Stawren replied. “ We were just looking for a place for the night. Tomorrow we’re hoping to reach my old family homestead, where my father was born, Raxtack City.”

“Well, can we at least put you up for the night?” Orzin offered. “Our house is only one occupied, obviously, but we’ve cleaned out a few others for when people eventually start coming back. You could definitely spend the night in one of those.”

“I think that sounds absolutely lovely,” Stawren replied with a grin. “Lead the way and we’ll follow in our vehicle.”

“It’s not far,” Tizzu called, “this way!”

Once inside the hovercraft, Stawren slapped Lyoth’s arm and Phentrom said with a chuckle, “I can’t believe you asked if they were cannibals!”

Lyoth snickered. “You liked that?”

Stawren drove behind the three men who were on foot, but they only led the hovercraft over a single tunnel street, and the travelers found themselves at the edge of a little neighborhood. In front of one house, three powerful vehicles with plows attached were parked in a row.

“That must be how they’re keeping the streets clear,” Phentrom commented.

Stawren parked, and the three exited the hovercraft again.

Devok was quick to say, “Sorry about these old clunkers! They do their job, but they’re a real eye-sore.” He turned to his husbands. “We should start parking them down the block.”

“That’s a good idea,” Orzin replied. He waved at the house behind the three vehicles and declared, “This is our home!”

“It’s lovely,” Phentrom replied.

Tizzu gave the mandroid a flirty smile. “Thanks, hunny! We’ve tried to make it homey, and we’ve slowly been cleaning the other houses on the block. We have completed the ones on either side of ours, and four of the houses across the street.”

“You three can stay in any of them,” Orzin added, “and you’re welcome here in Ebivon with us for as long as you’d like before heading to your family land.”

“Please, at least let us cook you dinner!” Devok insisted.

“Lead the way,” Stawren replied.

“And let us know how we can help,” Phentrom added.

Orzin perked up and asked, “Do one of you want to do a little fishing with me?”

Stawren’s eyes flashed with excitement. “Are we having dzuwilla?”

Orzin let out a laugh. “Only if we catch some!”

“Can we help as well?” Lyoth asked the men.

“Why don’t you two cuties join us?” Tizzu urged. “Devok and I both have food to prep, and we’d love the company.”

Stawren nodded to Lyoth and Phentrom, and then turned to Orzin and asked, “Where’s the water?”

“Right through the neighborhood!” he proclaimed, and they made their way into one of the tunnels as Lyoth and Phentrom entered the house with Devok and Tizzu.