Liana's Ship (#ONC 2021)

19. Liana: Fast Thinking

Earlier:

I hated being herded into a room, told to stay while the men sorted out the problems. But we had no choice, from what I’d gleaned from Zan, Betalaina would not survive If she came face to face with the guard. 

So what do we do when a hostile force invades? Sit pretty and wait until the bad guys go away or we get captured? That and drink fake tea. I'm British, the world would go to hell and we'd still demand a brew. It gave us something to do if nothing else.

To be more accurate, Betalaina needed something to do. If she didn’t occupy herself, she paced up and down the room and that irritated me. I took the mug of glorified brown water and tried not to wince as I sipped.

"You don't like tea?" She said, her childlike sadness was obvious. Dang, I was a bad actor, I swore I'd made ‘ah’ sounds as I drank, "it's ok, I just..." I tried to explain. 

"I tried," Thera spoke in my mind, "but the conditions this tea plant needs cannot be replicated here. Unlike the red fruit you eat." Her mind voice was distant and reedy, like she was struggling to breathe. She must be fading.

She was suffering and I'd added to it by hurting Thera's feelings, "it's fine," I said, trying to salvage the situation, "I'm not really a tea drinker, that's all." I'd taken a cuppa out of politeness, it’s like when an elderly relative who took a while to get out of the chair put the kettle on. I can’t then say, "sorry Auntie May, I don't like tea?" If I can't tell a little old lady with support stockings no, how could I tell an alien ship with a terminal disease? But Thera, I'll think she could sense my disgust, that made it worse.

"There's some of that brown granules you like in here. Perhaps you would prefer that?"

I nodded, I wasn't able to keep lying. I let Betalaina make the coffee. I took the cup and inhaled, the smell much more agreeable, even without my usual milk and sugar. Betalaina looked repulsed as I drank. "What is it?" I said to her, "have I done something wrong?"

She looked down, "I don't like the look of this coffee. I am trying not to, but to be honest it makes me feel ill." she gulped, "It just that it looks like rot to me and the smell is not agreeable.” 

"I didn’t know," I said, "I’m sorry if it scared you.”

There was a distant clanging that echoed through the walls."

"They're looking for the pods," Betalaina said, "they won't stop until they do. Zan is negotiating with his Father but it must be not going well."

"It's hopeless then," I said, "they'll find us and take the pods." The clunking was getting closer, "they can't be far away."

"Five minutes away," Betalaina said, "do you think, Thera?" She frowned, "I can't hear her, Liana."

I strained my mind, "I can't either. Is... She?"

"The rot has breached her core," Betalaina said, "I think, I'm not sure. She's lost the ability to fight it."

I felt the sadness wash through me, "I thought there was more time."

"She's concentrating on your ship home and preserving the pods. Everything else doesn't matter. Liana, will you do one more thing?"

I nodded, "I'll take the pods back with me to Earth but I can't open them. At least that way they could be opened one day. But what about you and Zan?" I asked.

"Zan won't leave Thera,” She said, and neither will I. We want to be there for her."

"But You'll die!"

"Liana, who doesn't?" Betalaina said, "I don't know how much longer I have the life of a Scion anyway. It could be a few rotations or it could be cycles, I mean years. I could even theoretically, turn into a ship."

"You could?"

"It’s possible, though it’s never been done naturally. What I do know is none of it matters if I’m found and that madman gets the pods."

I glared into my coffee, at the rot coloured, smelly brew that had caused such revulsion.

And then an idea came into my head. 

"What if," I said to Betalaina, "they find the pods, only to find they’re infected?"

"Are you insane? Betalaina said in a harsh whisper so as not to alert the guards. “Infecting them so they don’t want them?"

"Well not actually infect them?" I held up the coffee cup, "but make them look like infected pods? You have the coffee jar."

When I had a short stint working in a supermarket a few years ago. I had the disgusting task of cleaning up orange juice and coffee off the floor. Someone had dropped them as they were putting them on the conveyor belt. The awful tarry mess was hell to clear up and I stank of coffee long afterwards. 

"Quick, Betalaina,” I said as she opened the jar, “mix a little into a paste and slather it over the pods now.”

********

Present:

Oh God, it smelt like Costa had a fight with Starbucks. The pods were covered with a tarry coffee mess but it did look like rot.  I could tell the guards were repulsed.

 I couldn't see their faces, they were in full hazmat gear. The suits were black with red fish eyes but the body language, heads turning towards each other and the step back, I knew it was having the desired effect.

I wanted to know what they were saying but I couldn't understand the sing song language. It sounded absolutely musical but for all I knew they could be reading a washing machine manual or ordering my death.

I waved the pods around, hoping they wouldn't step any closer. Continuing this dance for a few minutes, just giving enough time for Betalaina to escape. I watched as she literally slipped into the wall and vanished, while I played ‘hot potato’ with the grunts.

"Yeah, I thought so," I growled, "scared of a little fungal infection, what a bunch of cowards you are." Completely pointless, I know neither of them could understand. I shook the pod at them one more time and they screamed, actually shrieked as they bolted from the room.

I ran to where Zan was, remembering to act distressed. This needed an Oscar worthy performance.