The Chule

By Sean Monaghan

Setting up a quiet, simple colony on planet Barchime should be idyllic.

Eliza, Della and the others have high ideals.

 

Sparsely populated, the gorgeous planet offers everything they need.

 

But when something riles up some local wildlife, the simple life might just come to an end

 

A very sudden end.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Triple V Publishing
• Release date: Mar 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201385743

Sean Monaghan

Award-winning author, Sean Monaghan has published more than one hundred stories in the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and in New Zealand, where he makes his home. A regular contributor to Asimov’s, his story “Crimson Birds of Small Miracles”, set in the art world of Shilinka Switalla, won both the Sir Julius Vogel Award, and the Asimov’s Readers Poll Award, for best short story. He is a past winner of the Jim Baen Memorial Award, and the Amazing Stories Award. Sean writes from a nook in a corner of his 110 year old home, usually listening to eighties music. Award-winning author, Sean Monaghan has published more than one hundred stories in the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and in New Zealand, where he makes his home. A regular contributor to Asimov’s, his story “Crimson Birds of Small Miracles”, set in the art world of Shilinka Switalla, won both the Sir Julius Vogel Award, and the Asimov’s Readers Poll Award, for best short story. He is a past winner of the Jim Baen Memorial Award, and the Amazing Stories Award. Sean writes from a nook in a corner of his 110 year old home, usually listening to eighties music.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Eliza Cren nibbled at the quick of her left thumb. Just a little burr of skin there. A bad habit, but better than some she could think of.

She lay back in her soft bed, staring at the dark low ceiling, trying to guess, without looking, how long until dawn. The soft cottony-sheets were cool and the house's defenses hummed quietly.

The only sound.

No night birds or roving quadruped predators. No ticking of a ship's drive or whirr of a vehicle's tires. No arguing between crewmates.

Just Eliza and her comfy bed and the low ceiling and the little burr of skin.

Bad idea to nibble at it in the dark. If she made it bleed--which she'd done before--she wouldn't see it before she'd bloodied her sheets and pillow and face.

She forced her hand down to her side. Took a deep breath of the sweet, slightly lemony air.

The dimmest of light came through from the doorway. The other parts of the building had unavoidable telltale lights from devices and systems. Air monitors, security readings, even the simple kitchen appliances.

Should be a good life. Should be a simple way to live. Should be safe.

And yet.

Eliza focused on her breathing. In. Out. In. Out. Slow and regular. Since the infection she'd never been quite right. Never been able to go a whole day without gasping for breath at some point. Never been able to run up the hill from the river with the others.

Still, Karmen had always been fast. Sixteen years old and with a burst of speed that likely meant she'd never have to worry about predators. Ever. Eliza was never going to beat her anyway.

Breathe. In. Out.

After another fifteen minutes or so, Eliza sat up. She went to the window. The cloth curtains were rough and heavy. One of the first products of the hand loom. The weave was uneven, and the cottony fibers were lumpy in places, thin in others. But they felt nice against her hands as she pulled them aside. Reassuring in their natural feel, and their weight seemed to offer that extra layer of protection against the wide, wild outdoors.

The runners clicked as she pulled the drapes aside. Once she could have tapped at the window pane, or even simply waved at the control and had the window itself grow more transparent. Even simply spoken to the room's AI to get it to de-opaque the glass.

Another room, through. On another world. A previous life.

Eliza was twenty-one. An adult, but still a kid really. Still very gullible and naive. Sixteen year old Yuasha could tell her that he'd discovered a new species of bug with nine legs and she would believe him. He could be very convincing.

Twenty-one. And she'd left them all behind. Yuasha, Karmen, Nir and Mom and Dad. Back in their lovely apartment overlooking the Cheasapeake coastal works, the place alive with blooms and machines.

Outside, beyond the window, the valley was dark, but the stars sparkled. A moonless part of the night.

Cupping her hands around her eyes and pressing against the window, Eliza peered on out. The stand of uptok trees on the knoll below were just visible. Their glossy, waxy leaves picked up stray starlight and shone it back at her. They waved in a slight breeze.

The forest beyond washed on down the valley wall. It would be alive with nocturnal hunters prowling for tiny prey. A whole, complex food chain.

And now, she was a part of it.

Making a go of things out here at the edges of traveled space. That's what Brody would say.

Making a go of it.

Making a simple life.

From out in the forest came a bright cry. Maybe some bird screeching as it winged through the dark. Or a marsupial screaming as some fanged animal eviscerated it.

Eliza shuddered.

Come on girl. Don't paint yourself those pictures.

This is a wonderful place. Idyllic. That paradise exactly as promised in the brochures.

Not that there were brochures, as such. Physical or othewise. Just the talk from the group and a wider, broad set of people.

From elsewhere in the house came voices. Mumbling and quiet. No distinct words.

Della. Talking in her sleep. Doing all the voices, as if she was in some one-woman play.

Eliza smiled to herself. Far to the east the sky might just be beginning to grow lighter. A couple more hours to sleep before she would have to get up. Yay.

As she turned from the window, something thumped on.

Eliza jerked. Stepped away.

A night bird? Out flying and not expecting the house? After all, it was easy to fly around trees, but the building was enormous, compared to any tree. And there were maybe a hundred buildings on the whole planet. Pretty hard for the birds to learn about.

The thump came again.

Not a bird.

A paw.

A huge black paw. Just visible in the scant light.

Gone again.

The stars sparkled. Eliza trembled.

She stood frozen. Staring at the window.

The paw didn't come again. She got back into bed, but she didn't sleep. Not a bit.

CHAPTER TWO

Barchime lay over two hundred million kilometers from Vixen 129, the local star. Vixen belched and burped and pumped out so much heat that most of Barchime was hot. Ragged deserts draped her equator, and tropical forest stretched into the high latitudes. There was ice at the poles, but the northern cap vanished for the long months of summer.

Eliza got up before the sun, but dawn was streaking the sky and shimmering into the forest. Goazmer swans were beginning to take to the air. They would leave their high perches and fly across the ridgeline behind the house, heading to a lake fifteen kilometers