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COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
Copyright © 2010-2011 by Snowdon King
Translation Copyright © 2012 by Petru Iamandi
Published by Wildside Press LLC
www.wildsidebooks.com
DEDICATION
For Nicole
CHAPTER ONE
RUTH DESERT
It was forty-two hours since he had been trying hard to fix the communication system. To no purpose, though, for the circuits were burnt out. To cap it all, he was running out of water.… What should he do? He wrote a message and left. Behind him the size of the topter got smaller and smaller until he found he was alone, with just his shadow for a companion.
“Bloody wreck. That could only happen to me. If only I had stayed in Zayon and fucked all those mutant cows.”
“Hey, stop worrying, everything’ll be fine.…”
“Well, what else can you say? Life’s a big mess. And I’m in hot shit up to the eyes.”
“The darins are surely gonna help us change things. Come! Keep going! We’re close.”
“Yes. Come.… Keep going, keep going and dream empty holograms. I must be raving.”
“Come on, Lerman. You know I trust you, don’t you?”
“Go to hell and leave me alone.”
“But Lerman.…”
“No buts.”
“Wait a minute. You do know God fixes everything. He knows everything and shows us the right way.”
“Forget God, OK? See where he’s brought me? See how well he’s shown me the right way? Where was He during the pandemic?”
“You’re still blaming Him after so many years.… You’re such a child.…”
“Stop hobnobbing with me. Go to hell and leave me alone.”
As a matter of fact he had had enough of living in a city full of androids and junkies. Deep inside he just wanted one thing: to get to Serenia. In order to make his dream come true he needed darins, as many darins as possible.
When he met Naej he was on the brink of despair. Though he had worked so many years in Eldena, his life hadn’t changed a bit. The same dull job, the same nauseating smell of plastic and oils, the same bars and virtual programs. He knew them all inside out. Naej, a crazy old man looking like a comedy character, kept shouting on the deaf streets of Zayon: “He who finds Uezen at the foot of the Anor Mountains, will be the richest man ever!”
Who was Uezen, no one knew for sure. They were just making wild, bizarre guesses: a creature from Ruth Desert, the guard of a huge treasure of Nedean emeralds, or a spirit that took the shape of the most terrible fears. And all this because they had found thousands of dead treasure hunters, their faces dehydrated and distorted.
Nede, the third planet from Nagur and the fourth in size after Ulma, Pteol, and Velora. Its average outer surface—29,000 miles, its sidereal spinning time—nineteen hours and forty-seven minutes. Heavily populated only in its southern hemisphere, where the Vigor River flows into the Kora Sea, where the city of Zayon had flourished, with over two million souls. Apart from that there were a few settlements in the northern hemisphere, around the Anor Mountains, from where rare metals were extracted, wolfram, molybdenum, and rhenium in particular. Next to the former springs of the Tanor River there was Karan, the only place in which they could find Nedean emeralds, famous throughout the system for their beauty and value.
When they found the first precious stones, the Zayonist Council had to take action and change the place into a real outpost. The news spread fast and the area was invaded by desperate treasure hunters, although the high taxes ruined most of them.
To Lerman, Karan was just the starting point, that is if he could rely on the information received from Naej in exchange for two hundred darins. Just before he left, he had got in touch with Tarek, an old treasure hunter who knew every inch of the Anor Mountains. But now he had to manage by himself. The only solution was to head North and come across a hunter or a patrol.…
Day 1
The relentless sun was burning his face. Streams of sweat were trickling down under his clothes and his footsteps were zigzagging on the sand.
“I wasn’t supposed to get here, of all the places!” he shouted and glanced at his watch.
“You’re heading North, Lerman.”
“Yeah, I know, North.… There you go again.”
“Come on, take a deep breath and keep going.”
“You mean if my lungs don’t burn up before I take the first step.”
“So you think it’s funny. You know too well I care.”
“Look, I’m really not in the mood.…”
“Come on…we could.…”
“Stop it!” He shielded his eyes trying to make out the outlines of the Anor Mountains. Nothing. Then he looked up for a second at the killing globe.
“Can you tell me where that bloody outpost is? Of course not.”
He took another sip of water and started to make some rough calculations: if I do two miles per hour, in seven days I’d do a hundred. Yes, yes! But that…if I don’t come across some sort of resort and take my time in a pool…but not with those sickening female androids from Zayon. No, no! Oh, God, if I manage to get to Serenia.… To find myself a wonderful woman, with a life’s guarantee.… A woman who’ll stay young and beautiful and won’t ask many questions.… But, since the whores’ revolution on Pteol, they all seem to have caught it. They all stick up their nose in the air, yes sir: tens of thousands of darins, freedom insurances, the right to have lovers. You ask your wife to massage you and the next day you find an android on your doorstep saying: “Madam has asked me to inform you that she is being busy this week. I will replace her and I hope you will be satisfied. I can offer you a whole range of services.” Damn it! The perfect surrogate. Imagine chewing a latex and silicon nipple, imagine the female android, programmed to moan, to lose her voice in the happiest moments and to start neighing like a Pteolean mare. And you, much too frightened, can see your dick only with a magnifying glass. Imagine her oily spittle trickling into your mouth avid for genuine saliva. Imagine the plastic pubic hair sticking to your teeth and the vaginal secretions making you throw up. But the Sereneans! That’s what I call real women! So much grace! So much sweetness!
He wiped his forehead and looked again at Nagur, full of hate.
“Why are you staring at me? One more hour and I won’t see your stupid face again.”
The heat was unbearable. He took out the canteen covered with Taugus adder leather and had two mouthfuls of water. Then he continued his infernal march for several hours. His eyes were focused on the North, always on the North.…
Night was descending on the desert of Nede. The cold was pinching his face. He made a hole in the sand and took out the thermo-insulating bag. The filter made sure the air he breathed was clean. He was like a silk worm in a cocoon, waiting for the morning so it could spread its wings.
Day 2
He woke up with a terrible headache and a stiff neck. Nagur rose above the dunes and the temperature grew fast. He swallowed a Xerun pill and started to fight with the sand again. The heat made walking more difficult, his steps seeming to strike roots in the desert that was opening its mouths thirsty for blood.… After a few hours he stumbled and fell on his knees. Exhausted, he put the canteen to his mouth and was surprised to find he had drunk more than half of it.
“Damn.”
“See what happens if you can’t stop talking?”
“Not you again.”
“Two