Alice: The Girl From Earth

Chapter Siixteen The Mirror Flowers

Alice held tightly onto the chain that held the Blabberyap bird. The bird did not resist or cry out; it was as if the animal understood what was wanted of it. It flew slowly over the bushes, and if we held behind it rose a little on the wind and tread the air, waiting for us to catch up. Our going on the ground was difficult; we were the first to tread the grasses and weeds of this world. We had to crawl across fallen trees, work our ways thorough long curtains of lianas and thorn, and cross swift flowing steams.

Yellow lizards on tall, long legs jumped out from beneath the roots and exploded running to warn the forest’s inhabitants of our approach.

When we came out onto a field overgrown with enormous numbers of predatory white flowers. The flowers chittered loudly, snacking on the butterflies and bees, and turned toward us, plucking at our feet with their leaves, but they were unable to bite their way through our boots and because of that they just grew vexed and wailed in protest. On the other side of the copse of trees still another meadow opened amid the trees. The flowers here were reddish in color. They papered to be very curious; as soon as we came through the trees all flowers turned in our direction was though they were looking at us and catching our scent. A vaguish whispering filled the field.

“It’s like they’re all gossiping with each other at once.” Alice said. “And they’ll be talking about how we were dressed and how we went through here until night fall.”

The whispering and muttering of the curious flowers seemed to go on forever.

It was a planet of flowers. On that day we encountered even more flowers that argued violently among themselves, flowers that huddled underground to hide themselves from us as soon as we appeared, that jumpped from plce to place, bolting into the air on long roots, and enormous numbers of perfectly ordinary flowers: blue, red, green, white, yellow, some of them on trees or bushes, others on the cliffs, in the water or slowly flowing through the air.

For about two hours we chased after the Blabberyap bird. In the end we were exhausted.

“Wait!” I shouted to the Blabberyap. “We have to rest.”

We hid beneath an enormous tree to avoid being seen from above by a circling Crockadee and found places to rest in the shade. The Blabberyap bird perched on a branch overhead and, as always, drifted off to sleep. It was a lazy bird and, when it was not speaking or not working, was not long for the waking world.

Poloskov sat down, leaned back against the trunk of the tree, and asked doubtfully:

“And what if the Blabberyap bird just decided tog go for a stroll?”

“Don’t say such a thing!” Alice said angrily. “If you think that way it will just be easier to go back.”

Unexpectedly the star slid behind the horizon and a short night commenced. Immediately the stars came out.

“Look,” Alice said, “one of the stars is moving.”

“More likely it’s an asteroid.” I said.

“Or it could be a ship.” Alice said.

“Now why would a ship end up coming here at all?”

The star vanished behind the trees. Five minutes or so later another dawn began, but this time three stars at once rose above the horizon and very quickly it became both very bright and very hot. All around bees were buzzing and grasshoppers made clicking sounds.

“It’s time to get up.” Poloskov said, rising to his feet. “The Blabberyap Bird is calling us on, ever on!”

“‘Forward!’“ The blabberyap bird shouted in the First Captain’s voice. “‘Onward, a tam razberemmsya.’“ Then it added in quite another voice: “‘To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield,’ as the famous Captain Scott said.’“

“See, papa.” Alice said. “He’s encouraging us. We’ll be there soon.”

I did not share Alice’s joy. I know what we would see if the Blabberyap bird did indeed lead us to the place where the Second Captain came down. We would see the shattered pieces of the Blue Gull entangled in vines and weeks, overgrown with flowers, and of the Captain himself we would be lucky to even find bones. But I followed after Poloskov.

We struggled through the dense underbrush for another half hour, and suddenly the Blabberyap bird darted for the sky, as though he wanted to test the strength of his leash.

“‘Remember this spot!’“ He shouted from on high. “‘Remember this spot, Captain.’“

Then the voice changed, and new words were shouted down:

“‘Grab that bird. Hold on to it! Don’t let it get out alive!’“

“Who is he imitating?” Alice asked.

“I don’t know.” Poloskov answered. “Verkhovtseff, perhaps?”

The Blabberyap was searching for something.

“Let go of the leash.” I told Alice.

She obeyed me. The Blabberyap bird flew higher and higher, turning into a dot among the clouds, and just as quickly dropped faster than a stone heading for the ground.

“He’s found it.” Poloskov said.

But then we saw that a Crockadee was chasing afer our bird. The huge predator was gaining.

“Shoot!” I shouted to Poloskov.

Our Captain clutched his pistol and fired without aiming. The Crockadee, which had nearly caught up with the Blabberyap, gave a loud squawk, it seemed to loose its trim for a moment, but the bird caught itself and continued its flight over the forest as though nothing had happened.

We rushed to where we had seen the Blabberyap come down. A large green meadow opened up beyond the tangle of bushes. It was surrounded by rounded hills overgrown with trees that could almost be described as paunchy. The Blabberyap bird was no where to be seen.

We stopped at the edge of the field. It was covered with ankle high, silky grass, and along its edges, as though they had been specially planted there, grew some very unusual flowers. Low and very wide, Petals of a metallic color surrounded a center the size of a large plate. The center was mirror bright, an almost convex lens that reflected the whole meadow. The flowers sat on short, fat stems without any leaves.

“Don’t get close to them.” I told Alice. “What if they’re poisonous?”

“No,” Alice said. “I don’t think they are. Look.”

We watched as a small animal similar to a rabbit jumped out of the bushes. The animal hopped up to the flower and looked up into the mirror. Then, just as quietly, as though we had not been there, it hopped back into the bushes.

“Some sort of error.” Poloskov said. “Not a trace of the ship anywhere. The blabberyap was just wrong.”

“Or we were wrong to go running after him as though we were small children.” I said.

“I am thinking just how far it is back to the ship. Maybe we should get Zeleny to come pick us up in the cutter or ATV, but I really don’t want to leave the ship unguarded.”

Alice had gone on to the middle of the field, looking around. She approached one of the flowers. The flower moved to follow her, as though it wanted Alice to look at it.

“Let’s take them back.” Alice said.

“All right.” I answered.

Poloskov pulled the portable metal detector from his pocket and made a circle of the meadow. The metal detector found absolutely nothing.

“There’s no ship here and there probably never was.” Poloskov said finally. “Let’s go back.”

We cut off a bouquet of the mirror flowers. The bouquet was heavy, as though the flowers had been cut from stone. We took turns carrying them, and I more than once wanted to throw away part of them, but Alice would have none of it.

We hardly made it to the ship alive. Fortunately, while we had been away, nothing had happened there.

“Well, how’d it go?” Zeleny asked. “A failure, I take it?”

“A complete and utter failure.” Poloskov answered, taking off his boots and stretching out on the divan in the Crew’s Lounge.

While we spoke Alice dragged in two large pans and filled them with water to keep the Mirror Flowers from drying out.

“Yes.” I said. “The ship was not there. Aside from that we lost the Blabberyap bird. Most likely he’ll end up as hors d’oeves in the diet of the Crockadee.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Poloskov said, laying on the divan. “Tomorrow morning I’ll start in on the metal detector, fix it, and we won’t leave this planet until we’ve found the Captain.”

Something hit me painfully in the leg. It bent down and saw it was the Diamond Backed Turtle.

“How’d it get out here?” I asked Zeleny. “I did lock it in the safe.”

“It made such a racket banging against the sides of the safe I took pity on it.” Zeleny said. “And what re those strange flowers you’ve brought?”

“Mirror flowers.” I answered.

Zeleny walked up to the bouquet and asked again,

“Mirrors?”

“That’s right.”

“Well I’m looking into one now, and it’s not reflecting me at all.” He said.

I turned and realized that Zeleny was competely correct; the mirrored centers of the flowers were reflecting not Zeleny, but Alice. And behind her head I could see the little figures of me and Poloskov. And we were not standing here in the crew’s lounge, but on the circular meadow.

“Now this is very interesting.” I said. “It means these flowers, while they are alive, record everything they reflect, as though they were photographing it.”

“Tuk, tuk, tuk!” The sound shot through the Crew’s Lounge. Poloskov jumped up from the divan and ran to the port.

On the other side of the port sat the Blabberyap bird, pecking at the plast with its beak in order to attract our attention.

“Just think, a bird smart enough to come home to roost.” I said. “I’ll let you in now.”

The blabberyap’s beak opened wide. He said someting, but we could hear nothning through the walls of the ship.

When I ran over to the airlock and opened it, the Blabberyap bird was already waiting for me. He flew into the ship and headed directly for the Crew’s Lounge. I followed after down the corridor. The bird flew uncertainly, then landed on the floor and walked on foot, limping. Poloskov opened the door to the Crew’s Lounge and, on seeing the bird, said:

“Come to gloat over the fine mess you’ve gotten us all into?”

The Blabberyap answered, if not to the point:

“‘I can’t hold out much longer! Is help coming soon?’“

“It’s the voice of the Second Captain.” Alice said. “He’s seen the Second Captain.”

“Alice,” I said, “for all we know the Second Captain may very well have said these words four years ago. You know what a good memory the Blabberyap bird has?”

“No,” Alice said, “he’s seen the Second Captain. We have to go back to the field.”

“No, not right now.” Poloskov answered. “Even my feet are killing me. And you, Alice, you’re ten times more exhausted. And anyway, the Captain wasn’t in the spot where we were. If there had been even a single nut or bolt, even a single screw within a few dozen meters surrounding us the metal detectors would have found it.”

“It only means we have to go a few dozen meters to one side.” Alice said insistently. “And if you’re not going, I’ll go alone.”

“Not before you get a good night’s sleep.” I said sternly. “And then we’re all going back there. We’ve promised that we won’t depart from this planet until we find the Captain, or until we’re convinced that he isn’t here.”