Desert Stars by Joe Vasicek Page B

loomed close enough to make out the crooked lines of
strata running along the ridge. While shadows filled the canyons
and darkened the rocky foothills, the craggy peaks still shone from
the light of the setting sun. The sky overhead turned orange and
red; soon, it would fade to purple and black as the stars and
satellites came out overhead.
    A strange, unfamiliar longing stirred
in Jalil’s heart as he watched the land he knew so well pass by.
Not far from here was the site of the first camp, the one he’d come
to as a boy shortly after Sathi had found him lost in the desert.
He felt much the same way as he had when they’d moved away from
that site, out into the middle of the plains. Though he’d come back
periodically with Tiera to check on the cistern and make sure no
one was squatting, it never felt quite the same. All those
abandoned stone and adobe structures, devoid of life except for the
ants and an occasional lizard—it felt too empty to have ever been
his home.
    Is that how I’ll feel
about the Najmi camp someday? he wondered
as the caravaneer began the climb to the pass. The thought filled
him with fear, until he remembered the sun-bleached ruins of the
derelict spaceship—the one that had brought him to this world. If
he’d made it through that, surely he could live through
this.
    As the incessant hum of the engines
reverberated in his ears, he turned and glanced over at Mira, fast
asleep in the seat next to him. Her dusty black robes and headscarf
covered all but her slender hands, fingers curled near her face. Of
all the strange requests Sathi could have made—but it made sense
that Mira would want to make the pilgrimage with him, even if
coming alone with him was questionable. When a boy and a girl are
alone together…
    Nothing will
happen, Jalil told himself. His father
trusted him to be a man of honor, and he wasn’t about to betray
that trust. Besides, Mira was nothing more than a sister to him; a
stunningly beautiful sister, but a sister nonetheless.
    His fingers reached for the pendant
under his robes, and he stroked it gently, his thoughts drifting
back to the voyage ahead. The darkening sky faded to black, and the
stars and satellites began their nightly dance as the faint, cloudy
mass of the Good Hope Nebula rose with the crescent moon before
them. The arc of the galaxy shone down softly, tracing a path
through the heavens like a bridge to far away worlds. Down below,
the craggy peaks stood like sentinels, watching over the lonely
desert land that Jalil knew so well. But he knew it wasn’t the land
that held his destiny—it was the stars above.

Part II
     
    Chapter 4
     
    Jalil cracked open his eyes, head
swimming as he woke from the half-sleep of the past several hours.
The caravaneer continued to jolt him from side to side as it raced
across the landscape, the roar of the engine filling his newly
awakened ears. Yawning, he glanced out at the rust-red desert
around them. Although nearly two weeks had passed since they’d set
out from the Najmi camp, the landscape wasn’t much different than
when they’d started.
    Without warning, a high-pitched scream
split the air like the cry of some unholy beast. Mira cried out
next to him and covered her ears, while Jalil grabbed his father’s
rifle and climbed onto his seat. Wrapping his arm around the
caravaneer’s frame for support, he sighted the rifle and scanned
the barren landscape behind them for a target.
    He saw it just as it passed over the
horizon—a tiny black dot, high in the clear blue sky. It moved with
the speed of a shooting star, disappearing from sight only seconds
later.
    “ Ha!” laughed Hamza from
the forward seat. “Frightened a bit easily, are we?” He glanced up
at Jalil over his shoulder, his thick black beard revealing a
portly smile.
    “ Watch your driving,”
Jalil muttered as he slipped back down into his seat, keeping his
rifle on his lap. To his right, Mira turned and looked at him, eyes
wide beneath her