Chapter 6: The Red Beyond
Annette woke up at last, feeling exhausted. It felt as though she'd slept for ages and yet she still wanted to sleep more. The only thing that helped her to make herself get up was the realization that she was being carried. She looked up at Enoch who was walking along with ease as he carried her, as though she weighed nothing. When he saw that she was awake he set her down on some soft grass and offered her some water from his canteen.
“Sorry I had to put you under back there, it was the only way we’d make the jump through the exhaust pipe back there. Practically a mile jump!”
It took Annette a few moments to realize where she was and what lay before her. It was as if the moon had landed on the Earth, or at least the top slice of it– this was so huge! Stretching over a valley was what appeared to be a floating city that rounded off on the top into a large bubble containing mountains and clouds inside! From the lower region of this floating city there was a gigantic waterfall pouring into an impossibly deep chasm at the bottom of a valley. There was a golden glow coming from the water as it fell from the city down into the blue-green earth below, lighting up the entire underside of the city and the valley.
“So this must be the place I was living all this time then, huh?” Annette said, her voice full of wonder, unable to stop staring at the spectacle of the StarLion as it poured out the never-ending continuous flow of water into the Earth, or the Mars. She wondered if you called the soil of Mars "Mars" as we do Earth's "Earth."
“It shooow Iizz!” Said Enoch, in a mock Southern accent.
“Simply gorgeous! I am guessing that’s the water from the River of Life, then? It’s beautiful!”
She tried to see if she could hear the sound of the falling waters, but it was difficult to differentiate from the wind. Looking around, though, she realized they were on a very different kind of terrain than she had ever seen before. It had so many colors that you were reminded of a tropical forest, but then again the climate was far drier and even pleasantly cool. Above could be seen an amazing sight: mountains stretched up far into the sky, and then you saw a blue atmosphere, that disappeared into red one far above that. The stars were incredibly bright, even in all this light! On the mountains grew trees that defied gravity, yet somehow managed to maintain their lofty positions.
“We don’t have much time," Enoch broke her spell of wonderment. "I do apologize, dear lady Annette, for the trouble, but we should be on our way now. My ship is coming in presently!”
He stooped down and took some of the multi colored dirt into a little silver ball in his hand, which opened with a hiss. He put some earth inside of this (or some “Mars”), snapped it shut, and slipped it into his coat. Annette caught a glimpse of the shining ‘under armor’ he was wearing.
“Who is driving the ship? Do you have any other friends with you?” she asked.
“The ship itself is a friend! A pilot spirit, named Dallas. She will mainly remain inside the craft as the soul of its infrastructure, but sometimes will manifest in a humanlike form outside. I’m sure she will be happy to meet you! That’s what this dirt is for. The kinds of flowers and vegetation you can grow with Malacandrian soil is phenomenal, and is known to sometimes grow sentient plant life (although they are very slow moving and thinking)! I thought I’d give it to her as a present, as she loves gardening.” Enoch said, looking up into the stars, waiting for his beloved craft. Annette was amazed to see herself feeling anxious about his relationship to this “spirit of the craft” he’d mentioned. It was a strange idea, but she was now getting used to strange ideas.
“Well! Dirt is a perfect gift for a lady!” she teased.
“Thanks! I thought the very same myself. Girls love gardening, after all, don’t they! My mother was a big fan of collecting all kinds of manure for our garden back when I was on the Earth. I loved that garden!” Enoch looked nostalgic for a moment, then maintained his usual serious expression.
“That’s fine! Don’t worry about me, I don’t want to interfere with your gardening plans," Annette retorted.
Enoch was about to say something silly and witty as a comeback when he pointed at the sky.
“Look! Here comes Dallas!”
Annette turned around and saw what looked like a shooting star. Instead of dissipating as normal shooting stars do, it kept traveling along down the horizon, at an amazing speed. It’s flight pattern seemed irregular, also, as it curved and changed course in sharp angles.
“Ah, not again! I’ve told her so many times to quit this teasing thing she does. Well you might as well watch!” Enoch chuckled, gazing at the flickering light with admiration.
Another light appeared alongside the first, and the two lights seemed to be twirling around each other, darting back and forth in the sky. The first light was brighter, so until it got close Annette had a hard time recognizing the fact that there were two lights at all. They looked as if they were attacking each other, since small flashes often appeared between them.
“Such a show off…” Enoch said, lifting his wrist to his mouth, and whispering into a receiver he wore, “That’s enough, dear! Come to papa!”
This caused an immediate reaction in the light, which suddenly changed its course towards Enoch and Annette, and then emitted a very magnificent bright flash that lit up the entire sky like lightning. The two craft were now close enough that Annette could make out the details of both. They were quite unlike the spaceships she’d seen in the movies, but of course this was her only reference. The very odd thing was seeing that they seemed alive. The way they moved through the air was almost organic. Also, their movements were not exactly following the laws of physics. The first ship, which Annette figured must have been Dallas was a large sphere, pearl white covered in ornate patterns and had little openings from which arms would pop out, and some of these arms caught the other ship (which I will describe in just a moment) as it started to fall. The blast of light must have been some kind of weapon, which disabled the enemy craft.
“EMP! Well that’s what you guys call it anyway. Things up here do not necessarily follow the exact same laws you are used to, but you’ll get used to it,” Enoch explained.
Dallas approached them at an amazing speed, but slowed just in time to gently land on the ground on a pile of rocks, still holding the enemy craft. Although it was damaged, it was also wild. It struggled and writhed under the Dallas's grip. There was a ‘pilot pod’ which contained a nasty looking contorted shape within its red glass. Annette didn’t want to watch, but she had resolved to face all of this new reality with courage. The ship itself was almost like a gargantuan cockroach, but perhaps this reference popped into her mind due to its larger-than-life twitchings, and horribly rapid movements of its multiple wings and appendages under the grip of Dallas’s powerful robotic arms. Such a contrast, thought Annette, seeing the beauty and even royal appearance of the Dallas craft grapple with this overgrown mass of demonic technology. It was as though they had made a bug into a spaceship and outfitted it with a small space for a pilot to sit inside. And now the entire thing was being driven into the ground and practically squashed like, well, like a bug. Its belly finally ruptured under the incredible strength and pressure being applied by the opposing white and Heavenly craft, spilling guts onto the Martian soil with a horrible stench that followed soon after.
“OK, that’s enough! Let’s go, we have a schedule, sweetheart!” Enoch said at last.
But alas, there were yet more disgusting things to occur, for at that moment the pressure from the gigantic pearl white sphere of the Dallas also crushed the red capsule holding the enemy pilot to the point that the glass broke, and the little black writhing shadow spewed out of its ship, landing directly in front of Annette in a mass of tangled guts.
“EEEeeee!!” She said, recoiling back.
The nasty thing was obviously dying, but extended one clawed hand at them, scraping at the dirt. Enoch drew out h
is sword but Dallas was already on it, and pinned the creature down with yet another powerful robotic arm, which was decked out and shielded in glistening white armor. Annette noted that the creature had a somewhat human appearance, but with horrible mutations all over its body producing horns and spikes and claws in every available spot. Its eyes looked at them with pure hatred, and it garbled a bloody cough, which was most likely meant to be some kind of curse. Annette was horrified, but also a little bit amazed.
“Is that a . . . demon??”
“Yeah, kinda. well it’s more of a hybrid. We are interacting with real tangible things here now, as this planet has always had a greater ability for the two worlds to interact. This is an ancient genetic mistake-- the hard cold reality of the enemy’s camp. I’m sorry you had to see it. They’re uuuugly!”
He pulled out his sword as he said this, and stuck it in the demon’s head until it ceased writhing. Enoch was trying to play it cool and tough in front of Annette, but she could see under the sarcasm a glimmer of sadness even as he did this. He took a deep breath and looked as if he was remembering an old sad story.
“Long ago there was a war, and many of our brothers fell. I don’t mean fall in battle, but they lost hope– and lost their purpose in life. Then they followed after an enemy which tricked them and turned them into this!”
A huge fire poured out from one of Dallas’s many port holes, and instantly cleaned up the carcass of the enemy ship, and the arm pulled the dead body into the fire, neatly disposing of any evidence that there had been anything there but a pile of ash.
“Well! Who’s hungry!” Enoch said, changing his demeanor and not wanting Annette to feel gloomy.
Annette was not amused. But thankfully, offering an escape from the present, Dallas rumbled to life and opened a door, this one in the very center of her hull. The door was golden, surrounded by engravings that almost looked Elven and Lord of the Rings-ish, with many words in strange symbols and runes. A warm light that felt loving and strangely even nostalgic came streaming out, and a staircase extended from the door, with glowing steps. This staircase was a liquid metal that hardened into stone stairs. The strangest thing ever, thought Annette. They streamed out like crystal silver liquid, but then immediately froze into the shape of stairs of stone.
“Take one last look at your previous home, Starlion, because you may not see her for a while!” Enoch said, as he stretched out one robed arm to the massive ship over the valley with a waterfall going down, down into it. The surrounding mists on Mars made it look like a massive floating fortress, perched on a cloud and raining down mystical waters down into the impossibly deep valley.
“It’s a little bit hard to adapt to this new culture, Mr. Enoch! I’m not exactly so enthusiastic about spaceships as you are!” But as she gazed at the landscape, she did feel from all of this something far more powerful than just a science/fantasy visage. It really felt royal, and like what all the poets and myths were reaching for. This was humanity’s lost history, right before Annette's eyes!
“We should git’ a move-on, as there are still some creatures roamin about upon these lands!" he spoke mirthfully in an authentic American Western accent. "Down in the valley the good people of Malacandria keep things pretty stable, and there is a presiding arch-angel over this whole world, that you may enjoy reading about sometime in Ransom’s account of his first journey here. It’s quite a remarkable story! So fantastic that no one even ever guessed it was almost 99 percent factual! However, that only covered the small piece of land that is still inhabitable. The rest is wild country, filled with dangers. The air is thin and there are many cities existing underground still upholding the wild Martian culture which . . . well that’s another long story. You are welcome to study all about that in my library later if you wish. Let's go! Ladies first!” He motioned for her to enter his ship.
“You have a library! Well then, I will have to check that out!" Annette said, and began up the stairs.