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Soleil and Ben are two of only a handful of earthlings with the ability to teleport. They jump to an exoplanet called Amanzi, where there is water, but no plants. When they experiment with pyrophytic plants, trying to create a new ecosystem on the planet, the planet reacts.
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About the author: Elizabeth Viljoen
Elizabeth Viljoen is a student of literature who immigrated from Namibia to Auckland. She is working on her first novel, a family saga, and is doing a PhD in mythography. Previously, she was the editor of a small online magazine called Luhambo | Journey. Read more on North Shore Writers.
Academic writing Luhambo | Journey online magazine
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“Stranded,” I whispered, covering my eyes that teared up from the smoke. Billowing – white, grey, black. “Almost.”
Ben and I stood on the wharf we constructed last time we were here, about a year ago, watching the flames devour the ship. It was a controlled fire. Planned. Testing our theory. But still.
“I too prefer the old ways of travelling.”
“Not cars.”
“No, not cars.” Ben put his hand on my shoulder. It slipped. Sweat. From the heat. Was that why Jake could not pull Lily from the wreckage? No, do not dwell on the past.
He coughed and drew the neck gaiter over his nose. “Gosh. Nasty sting. We should move farther away.” His hand got stuck in the crook of my arm because my body begged to stay. “Now.”
I turned. Twice. Looking at the walls of the enormous cavern, the water gushing out the fracture at the back. Then my body followed him. Followed his atoms, as they disappeared and reappeared half a mile downriver.
Our coughing surprised me. Was it the smoke we inhaled back there, or did the soot particles follow our atoms? I couldn’t remember coughing when I escaped from Jake’s car wreck. Although, to be honest, I couldn’t remember escaping. Just panicking and suddenly being in my bed at home, under the sheets. I thought I’d woken up from a nightmare, but then felt my hands throb with pain. Severe burns. The dreadful smell of scorched hair. My scorched hair. The news said one person, female, was still missing after a vehicle from the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries got caught in a veldfire.
Ben pointed to the shaft we dug through the glass-like ceiling to the surface of the planet. “The chimney works well.”
“A tick for one part of the theory.” The colour of the subterranean river was changing. The stars above turned red.
“We are still way ahead of the team at Oxford,” he said and walked to the gear we left on a ledge against the wall of the cavern.
“It’s not a competition.” My breathing was heavier than usual. There was water around my feet, rising rapidly.
“Su...”
We grabbed the gear and leapt to our small spacecraft on the surface.
“Damn it.” Ben hammered his fist on the control panel, just missing the square that would start the ship. His hand flew into the air, hovering, gesturing an apology to the panel.
I smiled. As if the panel had a mind to understand the gesture! “No, Ben, maybe it worked. But the oxygen level will be too low now. And we didn’t expect the water to rise. We’ll come back in a few months to see if any of the plants took.”
He steered the spacecraft over the surface of Amanzi, an exoplanet first observed by Dr Ndaba from the MeerKAT project team in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. She named it after the Zulu and Xhosa word for water. We checked the opening of the underground tunnel, there where I first travelled eight years ago, but the slow-flowing water was still clear. Well, another check. In Earth time, we calculated, it would take a few hours until the debris and seeds drifted to that point. From there it would spread, following the three distributaries. We landed the spacecraft above the opening where the subterranean river surfaced; positioned the rover and its cameras so that we could monitor the spread of the seeds downstream. We had six more installations to do, then we could return home.
Ben made a fancy nosedive with the spacecraft, skimming over the water. And then it happened. Water busted through the opening of the tunnel, engulfing the spacecraft. The force sent us tumbling. Ben knocked his head on the panel to his right and lost consciousness.
It took all my willpower not to escape. I wouldn’t leave a helpless person behind a second time. Stay, stay, I willed. I folded my arms over my head in protection.
When we stopped tumbling, one look told me that Ben might be dead. Or that he needed far better medical attention than I could give him. The panels lit up, which meant the craft still worked. We were miles down the river, near a mountain. I landed the craft high up on a flat service, wrapped my arms around Ben, and prayed that we’d both leap in one piece with solely my ability to teleport.
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“What the heck!” said Rorisang, my best school friend and the doctor who treated my third-degree burns after I transported from the burning car that first time. She took Ben from my embrace, positioned him on the examination table, and started resuscitating him. In between she scolded. “What if I had a patient in here?”
Then she’d have had two patients to resuscitate. “Miracles happen. I wasn’t even sure we’d get here. Come on, Ben. Breathe.”
Suddenly he disappeared.
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“You’ll have to join the British team.” Rorisang tried to talk some sense into my head. Her doctor’s practice, now transformed into a laboratory, still looked more like a medieval Arab library. Dark bookshelves filled with leatherbound books and scrolls, a colourful mosaic wall, latticed windows, an ancient Persian carpet—inherited from her great-grandmother—on the floor.
“Could you not find anyone else with this gene?”
“There is one other person in our database, but she is not interested in this kind of work.”
“Can’t we just wait for Ben to recover?”
“Yes, but it may take months.” Her hand got stuck in her dark curls. She probably worked through the night, again. “Or years. He keeps disappearing and we don’t yet know where he goes.”
At least they finally established the medical unit for Project Amanzi. My luck that Rorisang could not use her consultation room for anyone else with Ben in a state of flux.
“Who is the person in the database?”
“Why don’t you want to work with the British?”
They didn’t need to know. It was personal. At least I no longer cried over him when the owl hooted in the oak below my bedroom window. I bit my lip and frowned.
“Su, she’s a lawyer. Don’t even try.”
“No, I won’t. I was just curious.”
Rorisang grabbed my hand. “Soleil. No.”
I smiled and flicked her hand away. And went back to her lab later that night, to get the address. The lawyer’s home and work address.
With a little digging, I found a worthy cause Bettina would love to defend. She did. There was a patch of land near Vermont earmarked for development. The only place where a still to be named blue ghost orchid grew. We won. With information nobody would have been able to discover unless they could sneak in and out of office buildings without being noticed. Only five of us in the world had that ability. Only we and the science teams we worked with knew about this – and were sworn to secrecy.
I lifted my glass of sparkling wine. “I know how you won the case.”
We went for drinks to celebrate, very late on the evening after the verdict. She first had to see another client who had a breakdown, until ten. I paid him to freak out for hours.
“Yes, with thorough research. And we had the law on our side. That is why I love defending causes for which I care deeply.”
The bar was empty, except for two lonely men, half asleep at the counter, and the bartender. He turned to pour a drink. I emptied my glass; grabbed Bettina’s shoulders with both hands. The trick I learned when I rescued Ben.
Next moment we materialised in her office.
She shoved me away. Clutched her tummy. Gagged. Scratched her face.
I waited.
“I knew there were others like me, but...”
I raised my brows and folded my arms.
“Have you been... how do you even... why... why do you jump to other planets?”
I smiled. She knew. Not all—until now she didn’t know that this client of hers was one of the teleporters—but enough. “Only one. An exoplanet. And it was by accident. I was invited to a tour of the new MeerKAT facilities by a friend.” Wait. Rorisang. Could she have been...? No. Not Rorisang. But. Why have I never thought of that possibility? She was, after all, the only one who knew, after treating my wounds. No. She wouldn’t. Would she?
Bettina didn’t say a word. Just nodded. And tilted her head.
“One moment I was fascinated by the stars and exoplanets. The recent discovery of one that might be habitable because there was water. The next moment I was on the planet. Didn’t even know it was possible.
“Yes, I freaked out. Couldn’t breathe until I realised it was a panic attack and not a lack of oxygen.
“When I returned, the scientists couldn’t help themselves. Too many possibilities suddenly opened. I was just glad we’re not Americans! Imagine. They’d put me in a cage, like a lab rat.”
Bettina hmphed. “That’s the movies, not real life. But they might have asked you to become a spy.”
“And that’s not like the movies? Besides, it is more or less what you do.”
“I defend the innocent! That’s different.” Was that a smile?
“It is an unfair advantage.”
“For the good side.”
“I wouldn’t say the axe murder case was the good side.”
“There are things you don’t know about that case. But I’m not at liberty to discuss it.” She looked out over the city. The streets that never slept but slowed down. Taillights lit up here and there, small dots on a screen, not a rushed snake hunting for prey like early in the evening.
“What do you want from me?”
“I need a partner, someone to teleport with me.”
She whistled, shook her head. “But I’m not interested in science.”
“You protected the rare blue ghost orchid.”
“It wasn’t about biology, it was...”
“About sustainable life on the planet.”
“People need houses too.”
“But if that side won, we would have lost the blue ghost orchid.”
“You are changing an ecosystem too!”
Ha! She knew even that. Who gave her all this information? “It is an experiment. On a habitable planet with no plants or animals.”
“Which may have repercussions.”
“Yes.” I slinked down on the leather sofa. “Never thought nature would behave so differently to what we knew. I thought laws that applied here would also apply there.”
She turned her back to the window, leaned against the cold glass. “Why not work with the British?”
“You know far more than you let on.”
“Your team of scientists has been trying to convince me for over a year now. Each on their own, not telling the others.”
“Since Ben came back.”
“A little longer. They are more worried about the ethical consequences than you are.”
“But why don’t you want to join? It is the opportunity of a lifetime.”
“For you, yes. But not for me. Why don’t you come and help me solve cases?”
“Aren’t you in the least curious? Only four people in the whole world had been on an exoplanet. And only five have the ability to go. Or go just like that. Others will have to wait for technology to catch up and that can be decades from now, even centuries if you consider the travelling time.”
“No.”
“It will be like going on holiday. To France or the Great Wall of China. Come on, it’s just a visit.”
“I’m from a dying town in the Karoo. Living in Cape Town was all I ever wanted to do. To be back in District Six, to buy back our family house, from which my grandparents were displaced and...”
“But imagine...!”
“Why do you want me to go with you? Do you need someone to hold your hand?” Was it a racist thing, I thought. Was it because of my light skin? Surely, we have moved beyond that. It was never an issue for Ben. For a moment I wanted to tell her about Nana and her half-sister.
“It is too risky to go alone. Look what happened to Ben.”
“All the more reason for me not to go. I cannot understand why you won’t join the Oxford team.”
“They are so slow. Too cautious.”
“You are too much of a risk taker, Soleil. I’m not putting my life in your hands.”
Damn. Damn it. Well... “Will you find your way home on your own?”
“I’ve done it for years.”
I stepped forward to hug her, but she ducked away. “Whoa, girl. You broke the code.”
“The code has not been written yet.”
“Then I’ll have to get started.”
I smiled, a little awkward, and jumped home to my cosy fourth-floor apartment. The owl’s eerie hoot welcomed me. What could I do? I fell onto the couch, sulked. Climbed into bed, turned and turned and turned. And turned. Tossed the duvet off, walked out onto the balcony, slumped down, almost missing the deck chair, sighed, stared into space. Shut up, I whispered to the owl. If only Ben could stabilise. I longed to go to the water place. Yes, that’s what I’d do. Go to Amanzi. On my own. Fearless. On Monday. Yes, or the day after.
I closed my eyes. Saw the underground cathedral where we lit up the ship. Or boat. An old wooden fishing vessel. It was an accomplishment getting it there. Ben and I practised for weeks, teleporting it from Cape Town to Auckland to Marseille to Puerto Vallarta and back to Cape Town at hours nobody would notice. We felt like kids in a secret society.
The light shimmered through the ceiling of the cavern, turned the stalactites a sparkling blue, the water pink and purple and orange. Water bubbled up, from deep inside the planet.
Birds chirped, large butterflies fluttered, a man’s voice called out, “Su, finally!”
What a lovely dream. A Persian cat was sprawled out on a rug at Ben’s feet. A slightly older Ben. He sat in a rocking chair, dropping the orange he was peeling. He rushed to me, hugged me so tight that it felt like a real hug.
I mumbled in his sleeve. “I can’t wait for you to stabilise so that we can meet in real life.”
He coughed, shook his head. “What do you mean, Soleil? I’ve been travelling back and forth for decades, bringing over fruit trees and birds and insects and old Grumpy here. Even furniture. This is real.” He pinched my arm.
“Ouch!” I flicked away his fingers.
But he grabbed my arm tighter and pulled me in the direction of an orchard. “We’ve been waiting for you to come out of the coma after you rescued me. Your body kept disappearing.”
“No, Ben. It was you who kept disappearing. You were knocked unconscious when the river attacked us.”
“The river didn’t attack us.”
“Yes, it did.”
“Are you saying the river has a will of its own? I have never experienced anything like that in the decades since I returned.”
I turned him around to see the yellowing of the river, but it changed back as soon as he looked in that direction. He shrugged, then patted me on the back. Smiling, but frowning.
“Come, there is someone I want you to meet. My wife. She is one of us. Bettina, darling, come look, you would never guess who is here.”
We climbed two flights of stone stairs to the house cave they dug out of the cavern wall. Bettina was arranging a vase of proteas. “Soleil! What a miracle.” She walked around the large wooden dining room table in the front room. “These are from the pioneer seeds you and Ben sent down the stream.”
I reached out to hug her, but she took a step back. “Hugs are against the code.”
