Chapter Thirty-Seven: Moons and a Machine
Saja shook her head. "Not with certainty—I don't know the current track of the moon. But I can make a guess…" Her voice was quavering only a little. This must be so scary for her. She's being so brave.
She didn't speak for a moment. "I think… either about two hours before midnight, or two hours after."
"The moon can tell time?" Mikey guffawed. "What's next? The trees?"
"People told time by the sun and moon for thousands of years before clocks were invented, Mikey," Don said. "If you know what you're doing, you can tell what hour of the day it is by how far the sun is above the horizon, or in this case, the moon. In fact, some people could use the positions of the constellations to have a general sense of the time of year."
"So does Saja know th' time of year, then? She seems smart." Casey's voice seemed a little too loud.
"I've long since lost track of the Jior calendar—even normal Jior easily lose track, since we travel to so many different worlds, each with their own calendars, and days and nights. There's a calendar by the current Anchor, so that when Jior return to the village, they know what day it is. But-" Saja lifted her gaze to the huge, splotched moon again— "The Moon Gathering will be in a few days. Or it just happened a few days ago."
"The Moon Gathering?" Mikey burst in. "That sounds like something from a weird fantasy movie."
"Hush, Mikey." Leo swatted him.
"What happens at th'… Moon Gatherin?'" Raph asked.
"That's when all available Jior gather in the square right after the full moon. Everyone who's traveling tries to come back in time for it; the town is very full for a day. Men tell of anybody got engaged, married, or new babies. And anyone who died. Sometimes someone has earned a new name through something that happened, or they've grown as a person, and so on. A new name isn't official until there's witnesses at the Moon Gathering, and the scribe writes it down." Saja stared at the village. She was trembling again. "And the elders remind everyone of the High Laws once in a while."
"Well, good thing we're here at night, then," Leo said.
"Ooh, look, there's another one!" Mikey's finger shot up, pointing to a second, much smaller, reddish moon hanging over the trees to their right. "Does that one help tell time, too?"
Saja almost laughed. "No. The little moon is crazy—it's so fast, it's not helpful in telling time. We call it 'Red Trout Swimming Down Waterfall.'"
Indeed, as the group paused to watch it, the red moon sank below the treetops like a video on fast forward. Even its glow disappeared within seconds.
Leo squared his shoulders. "All right, let's focus. Saja, which way does the Council Building face?"
Saja gestured, and Leo took point down the path between the two fields. Once they got to town, they would circle around the village to approach the building from the rear.
Finally, they stepped on worn flagstones rather than hard-packed dirt as they slipped between the first primitive buildings. Jokes, astronomical data, and arguments alike ceased as they entered the village, thankfully, except for the occasional guidance that the non-ninjas needed. They passed humble huts, cottages, and houses, most of which boasted small gardens in which alien vegetables grew. The further they got, the paler, quieter, and shakier Saja became, but Mikey kept himself very close to her, a little like a dog that sensed its master needed extra comfort. There didn't seem to be any guards in the village, or even anyone awake. And they certainly didn't need to worry about alarms or cameras.
It's great to be back in stealth. Leo checked the next corner before waving Mikey and Saja to come forward into his shadow. I just wish we could be on the rooftops like in the city, and not held back by the very person we're here to help.
Shuffling footsteps echoed off the paved streets and walls, and Leo froze, holding up a hand to warn everyone behind him.
The owner of the steps came into view: a young man, yawning hugely, holding a sleeping child. A woman behind him must have been his wife. He murmured something in his language, and she replied before stepping around him to the door of a house directly across the street from Leo's hiding spot. She opened the door for her husband, and all three went inside.
Once all was silent from that house—no more than three minutes; the couple must have tucked their child into bed and fallen asleep immediately—Leo turned.
Saja was pale. "They must have just arrived," she breathed. "The New Anchor must be in the woods that way, the way they came from."
Leo nodded. He adjusted their route to avoid the path from that new dangerous direction, but they saw no one else. Leading so many people felt awkward and clunky, with far more starts and stops to check on his fully trained brothers, the half-trained, loud human, and the Jior-turned-human who was barely holding her panic in check.
Finally, they arrived at the Council Building. The dark gray fieldstone walls rose to perhaps twenty feet high and lacked any windows of useable size on the back or sides. Leo sent Mikey to climb atop to look for openings on the flat roof, but the youngest turtle returned, shaking his head. They crept to the front of the building, past white stone columns, and found a ten-foot-tall double door made of a sturdy dark-colored wood. Behind them lay the smooth, worn fieldstone square.
Saja's complexion now matched the stone walls. "The Technology is wheeled out through these doors into the square when the Council wants to punish someone."
How convenient. A mobile torture machine.
Bolts locked the door, but as Raph had promised, they were not a problem. Leo left Mikey, Casey, and Saja under Raph's eagle gaze while he and Don went inside to make no surprises lay inside. Don pulled out his penlight again.
Beyond the door stretched a medium-sized, two-story hall with multiple doors and a few narrow, high windows, presumably for ventilation.
"This building reminds me of an early castle, which is weird in a pacifist culture." Don shone his penlight over the fieldstone walls.
"How so?"
"The thick stone walls, the single, defensible entrance, this hall—a bit like a courtyard—and these windows are narrow and vertical: too small for a person to go through, but easy for defenders to shoot arrows out of at attackers. Arrow slits, they're called."
One can always count on Don for an intelligent observation. "Maybe this culture wasn't always pacifist. Let's keep looking."
They dismissed the fancy double doors stood proudly straight ahead, up a couple of steps: the entrance to the building proper. Nothing wheeled is coming down those stairs.
Plain, unlocked, regular-sized doors on the right side of the hall led to what seemed to be rudimentary offices. The nine-foot-tall double doors on the left, however, looked promising. After unbarring the heavy wooden crossbeam that sat in two metal brackets—why was it barred, they wondered—and unlocking it, the turtles pulled them open to reveal a large storage room. Crates and barrels of varying sizes lined the edges, but in the middle stood an object about six foot tall and covered with a heavy navy canvas. Between them, they pulled off the cover to reveal what must be The Technology, so feared by both Saja and Taevon.
The beast of a machine sat on a heavy wooden platform with wheels. Squared off C-shaped arms curled around a small built-in black seat with a thin cushion and low back. Ropes had been added to tie across the victim's lap and ankles. Panels covered the matte gray sides of the machine itself. Don found finger grooves at the bottom of the first one and pushed up; the panel door slid up like a miniature garage door, rolling up like a scroll. A dizzying array of slides, dials, switches, and unlit lights gleamed before them, every single mysterious mechanical function labeled in a blocky script.
Don gulped.
Leo patted him on the shell. "If anyone can do this, Donatello, you can."
"I sure hope so," Don said, sounding very young.
The blue-masked turtle left his brother fishing in his duffel for better lights and went to fetch the others. They mostly closed the front doors behind them and joined Don in the storage room.
Mikey, Casey, and Raph whistled softly when they saw The Technology; Saja inched into the room, audibly whimpered, and covered her eyes with her hands.
Leo eyed them and quickly decided on some roles. "Mikey, your job is to hang out with Saja. Tell her stories, tell her about that comic you've been working on—whatever you want, as long as you keep it quiet."
"Great!" Mikey flashed him a thumbs up and threw an arm over Saja's shoulder, leading her over to a corner. "And, I've got snacks! And candy!"
"Don't eat too much sugar," Leo called softly after him. "Don."
His younger brother looked up. He'd made progress already: the room was lit well enough, and he'd apparently found a power switch, because The Technology now hummed softly and the little lights had come on.
"You know what your job is. We believe in you, and we'll help if we can."
Don nodded and turned back his task, shoulders hunched. I'm going to have to make him take a long hot bath after this, and give him a shoulder rub. Maye some tea.
"Raph and Casey, the three of us will be keeping watch. I want to know if anyone so much as wakes up in this town, not to mention if they approach the building. I hardly need to remind you we're intruders here."
Weapons in hand, Raph and Casey found posts to keep guard.
Thus the mission truly began. Leo supervised all three teams, alternating between checking on Mikey and Saja—thankfully Mikey had endless ideas for stories, verbal games, and other distractions, including the deck of Uno cards—Raph and Casey softly exchanging stories from their respective adventures, and Don working intently on The Technology.
Time dragged on as the brainiac struggled to puzzle out the alien machine. After scrolling up all the panel doors and carefully looking over the entire machine, Don dug out a small notebook from his duffel and began writing and sketching. He attempted to find seams to remove the casing of the machine, but failed except for one small section. The guts of the machine looked even more complicated and intimidating than the panels, and Don seemed displeased.
He only left the machine twice, once to make sure Saja couldn't read the blocky letters labeling everything—she couldn't; Don was disappointed but not surprised—and later, after about three hours, when Leo made him take a ten-minute break to eat one of Mikey's granola bars and drink some water.
By this point, Saja's initial panic and adrenaline had faded into exhaustion. Even Mikey grew tired of his games. Leo coaxed Saja into lying down, and before long, she slept curled up in the corner. When Leo realized Casey was fighting sleep, too, he had Mikey replace him and let Casey catnap sitting on a crate, leaning against a wall.
Some time later, Leo left his post to check on Don again and found him, hands gripping his notebook, staring at the sleeping Saja.
"How's it coming, Don?" Leo asked in a low voice.
Don jumped, then deliberately shifted his feet. "I… Can we travel home without Taevon?"