Actually, the planet was perhaps altogether indifferent. Cosmic-scale conquest likely held no interest to ordinary surface folks.
Incidentally, the garb the people wore in the movie caught Jinto’s eye more than the plot. There was no differentiation by gender in Abh fashion. Males and females alike wore jumpsuits. Here on Clasbule, however, it seemed jumpsuits were for males, while females wore simpler one-piece dresses and knee-high boots.
He tuned away from the transmission, deciding instead to determine their location. He set the device to receive signals from several different location markers on the planet’s surface and cross-referenced them against the map he’d booted from the vessel’s computing crystals.
He discovered a city named Lune Beega not too far away. In mentally matching the surrounding landscape with the map displayed on his compuwatch, he came to understand the forest floating in the sea of gold was not a forest at all.
Question is, do we try to blend in there, or do we stick to the fields... Jinto mulled it over. He only had nine meals’ worth of rations left. Even if he spaced those meals out, he’d run out in five days, tops. Procuring more food here was their only option.
However, while this stretch of land was evidently a plantation, he had no idea how to harvest the crops, and no tools to make them fit for consumption. That, and he shuddered to think of how many days they’d be spending sleeping out in the open. It would be hard enough for Jinto, who’d grown up on a terrestrial world. It’d be even harder for Lafier, who’d been brought up in an artificial environment.
It was settled: hiding out in Lune Beega was the way forward. Viewed from here, the city seemed small and unreliable, but there was bound to be public transport that’d take them to bigger cities.
Dusk had arrived, and so Jinto clambered down the hill; it wasn’t too high up, but it was a steep slope. Additionally, though there were plenty of holds for his hands and feet, the pumice was brittle. Any foothold could easily give way.
After many a close call, Jinto made it to the base of the hill. He wrapped around the base and knelt down to enter the hole — only to find he was face-to-face with a gun.
“It’s me, Lafier!” he said, hands up.
“Where were you?” she said, putting it back.
“Just went to do a little scouting.”
“I didn’t ask you what you were doing. I asked you where you were.”
“Man, you’re literal... I was atop the hill.”
“You idiot!”
“What?” he replied, flabbergasted.
“What if they’d seen you?”
“It’s okay. Nobody’s here.”
“They could be standing watch from above!”
“Oh yeah.” No doubt there were enemy ships scanning the surface from orbit as they spoke. They could, in fact, have spotted him. “But I’m telling you, I’m in the clear. I’m not wearing a long robe; they’d see me as a resident of the planet.”
“You can’t rely on the enemy making a mistake.”
“All right, fine. I won’t be so rash again. Promise.”
“Good. Don’t leave me without saying a word.”
“You were sleeping so soundly, though. Speaking of which, I guess I still haven’t said ‘good morning,’ so... Good morning, Lafier. Though I guess it’s already dark out.”
“Idiot.”
Grumpy much? Jinto shrugged. Guess even she can be childish sometimes. “Wanna move base, just in case?” he suggested.
“Yes, I believe that would be wise. I can’t say staying here would be anything but dull, anyway,” she said, on her feet now.
After tiding themselves over with some food, they set about preparing to leave.
Jinto picked up the small apparatus that had been placed over by the far end, a machine that converted moisture into potable water. Sure enough, its container was filled to the brim. He poured its contents into two flasks and handed one to Lafier. Knapsacks strapped on, the two put the hill in which they’d spent one night of their lives behind them.
Jinto broke the silence as they trudged on. “I reckon we head into the city.”
“The city?”
“Yeah. Beats playing hide-and-seek in the fields, anyway. I’d like to rejoin civilization at some point.”
“But won’t it be dangerous?”
“For sure it will be,” Jinto replied. What was he going to do, lie? “But it’s hardly safe out here, either. I’m not the Honorable Baron Emeritus of Febdash, but I’ll tell you what he did. I don’t know what the way forward is. That said, there’s no food here. I don’t know if you like the idea of starving to death in the middle of nowhere, but to me it’s gotta be the second least dignified way to go.”
“You’re right,” said Lafier. Her voice was lacking its usual verve.
“You’re still tired, aren’t you, Lafier?”
“I am no such thing,” she snapped. “Why would you say that?”
“Just asking.” Phew. There’s the hot-tempered girl I know, he thought, relieved. “But tell me when you are, okay?”
“I told you, I’m not tired.”
“Yeah huh.”
The dark of night grew ever thicker, and finally the sun sank entirely.
“Jinto.” Her voice sounded from behind. “Go on a little ahead of me.”
“Why?” He spun to face her, surprised.
“Don’t ask.” Her face had turned grim in the starlight.
“Whaddya mean, ‘don’t ask’? Look around, there’s no landmarks anywhere. What if we lose sight of each other?”
“Fine, then you should wait here.”
“Sure, but... I’ve still gotta know why.”
“And I said don’t ask.”
Jinto’s unease only mounted. Had she stumbled across some fresh new reason to play the martyr? He was duty-bound to disabuse her of whatever false notion she might be operating under.
“Listen, Lafier...” Jinto proceeded to speechify as to the nature of working in tandem. No keeping secrets, no trying to solve problems alone. They were to come up with their next steps together. That was the meaning of camaraderie. They had to overcome this crisis by joining forces and...
Lafier was listening at first, but gradually her brows slanted into a dangerous “V.”
“Jinto, you are officially dumber than a pack of frozen vegetables!” she cried at last. “Just wait there and look away!”
A certain torpor assailed Jinto as he watched her stomp off into a row of wheat. Then he hastily averted his gaze. In this darkness, she wouldn’t have been visible anyway, but it was incumbent upon him to respect the wishes of a blushing maiden.
Of course. Yes, she was Abh, beautiful as a sculpture. Yes, she was a relative of the Empress who ruled over 900 billion rüé-bisarh (imperial subjects). But she was still a creature of physiological needs.
Jinto’s legs turned to jelly and he fell to a seat next to the base of some more giant wheat. How could he let himself get so carried away? What a buffoon he was.
Meanwhile, at that very moment, a reconnaissance spaceship belonging to the Peacekeeping Force of the United Humankind named “DEV903” was hard at work analyzing video of the surface, and discovered a surface-landing hull of an Imperial Star Forces ship in the farmland outside the city of Lune Beega.
The work crew had attempted to place where it had come from, but without success. Records of the small vessel that had given three destroyers the slip in normal space after dodging a warship’s fire in flat space had gotten buried amidst all the other records detailing the huge and intricate battlefield. Gaining total control of an entire star system was no easy feat.
Of course, it would have only been a matter of time before they identified it fully, but there was a lot on their plate. The work crew surmised that the majority of soldiers left to find were escapees of the liaison base or the lord’s estate. They’d also ascertained that, judging by the state of the hull, its erstwhile occupants were still alive.
They relayed
that to Intelligence, but HQ had given the matter a very low priority level. After all, it had already been determined that all the key figures of the marquessate and the liaison base had already been captured or killed. Whoever the owner of this hull was, they weren’t worth a frenzied hunt over.
Moreover, the Laitefaiclach Sfagnaumr (Sfagnoff Marquessate Defense Corps), the personal forces of the Lœbeghéc Sfagnaumr (Estate of the Marquis of Sfagnoff), were still holding the line in a few zones on the surface, and many important government figures were still on the lam as well. The investigation teams were all out, equipped with odor detectors. Devoting manpower to tracking down one or two people who’d crash-landed would be a waste of effort.
First, they needed to conquer the planet more firmly, and arrest and detain any and all individuals who had aided the Empire’s reign. Thus, they’d beat the populace back into servility.
The Star Forces soldier-hunting job would make for a fine accompaniment to the greater labor. Their prey was helpless anyway.
“Whoa!” Jinto came to a halt. He could hear the dirt fall in clumps down away from his feet.
It was a ravine. Jinto had teetered on the cliff’s edge.
“What is it?” said Lafier.
“It’s a dead end.”
And the sun wasn’t peeking out any time soon. Jinto screwed his eyes against the darkness trying to measure the gap, but there just wasn’t enough light to make out what lay ahead.
He turned on his compuwatch’s flashlight function, but illuminating the ground around him was the best it could manage.
Suddenly, light poured out from the vicinity. A powerful searchlight was cast upon the opposite side of the gorge.
Lafier was brandishing her phaser at the ready. The beam was coming from its muzzle.
“How do you do that?” asked Jinto, pulling out his own gun.
“I showed you where the safety is. Set it between SAFE and LOADED. That’s where the flashlight function is.”
“Really should have pointed out a feature that convenient at some point,” carped Jinto.
“It slipped my mind.”
“I see.” Using a gun as a flashlight was not an everyday occurrence.
Jinto set the safety to FLASHLIGHT, and pulled the trigger.
The gap was larger than he’d imagined. It was at least a üésdagh in breadth. The diagonally carved precipice wound wide indeed.
Deep, however, it was not, measuring only around 500 dagh top to bottom. There was giant wheat growing at the bottom of the canyon, too. He could look down on the ear tips.
“It’s looking pretty rough,” he said, holstering it back into his sash-belt and leaning over to scan the cliff. The drop wasn’t totally vertical, but it was too steep to walk down. Meanwhile, the climb back up looked easier. If he they didn’t watch themselves on the descent, they could easily tumble and plummet.
Jinto took off his knapsack and rummaged through it. “We got a rope or something in here?”
“There should be a ryrdüac (carbon crystal fiber).”
“Sounds useable. Where is it?”
Lafier’s hand extended from the side and took something rod-like out from Jinto’s knapsack. She spun it deftly in hand. “So, what do I do with this?”
“You need to ask?” he said, taken aback. “We’re gonna use it to make our way down. Hand it over a sec.”
Jinto took the rod and inspected it. Though it was of course military issue, it took after the same general principle as the ïotmséc ryrdüar (YOHMSEH RYOORDWAH, carbon crystal fiber spindle) he’d used on Delktu.
The fiber was contained within the rod’s core, and fast-drying gainh (synthetic resin) occupied a good part of both ends. Fibers of cheaper make might only be useable when uncovered, or be covered from the outset by a coating. This fiber, however, was high quality. One could choose whether to apply a coating based on the circumstances.
Moreover, the hook attached to the fiber’s tip was versatile and could be remotely controlled. The Star Forces could be counted on to spare no expense, even on auxiliary items.
Jinto strung the hook as he applied the coating on the fiber. Then he had it snake its way over to the base of the giant wheat and hook on.
“All right, I’ll go first.” Jinto gripped the spindle, turned his back, and lowered a leg. He let out the fiber little by little and rappelled down the cliff.
He made his last leap after confirming the ground was a mere 50 dagh below via the light of the compuwatch.
“It’s your turn, Lafier!” Jinto shouted, looking up at the top of the precipice. He then set the spindle to automatically wind itself back and let go.
The spindle smoothly climbed back up the cliff as it scattered the coating scraped off the fiber.
“I’m jumping!” she said, conveying her determination with heft and import.
Lafier descended with a great big swoosh. It looked as though she’d left carbon crystal fiber unreeled.
Jinto rushed to her side. “You — you okay?”
“Of course I am,” she said, her face contorted with pain.
“I told you, you’ve gotta stop overdoing it.” Jinto offered her a hand up.
“I am not overdoing it,” she insisted, dismissing the hand.
“If you say so.” Jinto unhooked the line via remote control, and rewound it. The shavings of synthetic resin piled up at his feet.
When he’d finished winding it back up, he used his gun once again to illuminate the cliff’s underside.
“What are you doing?”
“Looking for a new lodge for the night. Gotta be far enough away now. Aaaand looky here.”
A cave. Jinto beckoned her, and together they drew closer to their fresh accommodations.
It was quite extensive; they couldn’t see its far wall even using the phaser’s flashlight. Jinto kept the cave’s depths illuminated, on the lookout for some hidden, lurking threat, but as far as he could see, no such cause for concern was to be found.
Jinto laid down his knapsack and summoned the map on his compuwatch. It told him they were under 50 üésdagh from Lune Beega now.
Soon, it was mealtime for the two. Jinto went into his plan while munching on some more nearly tasetless combat rations.
“I’m gonna go check out the city, but I’ll be back.”
“By yourself?” Lafier raised her brows.
“Uh, yeah. Duh.”
“Why? Is there a reason I can’t go?”
“You’re wearing a military uniform,” he pointed out.
“Whaddya think’ll become of somebody wearing a Star Forces uniform in an enemy-occupied town?”
“Ah...”
It never crossed her mind? For real? I mean, there’s naïve, and then there’s naïve.
But Jinto kept those misgivings to himself. “That’s why I’m gonna be getting you something to wear that won’t stand out. I’ll zip in and out as quickly as possible, so wait for me here.”
A fire kindled in her eyes. Jinto was flustered. What had sparked her ire now? Had he said something untoward?
No. He was making all the sense in the world, and besides, if she thought differently, she should tell him otherwise. The way she was glaring at him was uncalled for.
Yet he was surprised when Lafier nodded. “Okay.”
“Good.” Jinto washed down the last crumbs of his rations with some water and got up off the ground.
“You’re leaving already?”
“Yeah. The earlier the better.”
“You might be rushing straight into ruin.”
“No need to remind me. Half of me’s sure I am.”
Jinto retrieved the sash clip from his knapsack and put it inside his jumpsuit’s pocket. He also decided to take three meals’ worth of rations with him. The rest he left behind.
The issue was his compuwatch. His model was the standard for the Empire, but it was rare across terrestrial worlds. The sharp-sighted among the people might find him out just through that. Naturally, they woul
dn’t jump to the conclusion that he’s a noble, but they might think him a laimh imperial citizen. He would be pretending to be a soss territorial citizen, so that was an outcome he aimed to avoid.
On the other hand, the compuwatch was a very convenient tool in his arsenal. After all, he needed to be able to contact Lafier if an emergency arose.
In the end, he elected to place it, too, into his pocket.
“You’re not taking the gun?” she asked, incredulous.
This was no time for jokes. Jinto could only shrug. “If I get caught in a shoot-out, I’m a goner, gun or no gun.”
“Mm hm. So you’d rather just give up.”
“Don’t make me out like that. If they catch me carrying a Star Forces gun on me, they’d have me dead to rights.”
“Ah. I see.”
“Glad you see it my way,” Jinto sighed. But some trepidation lingered in him — not regarding his situation, fraught with peril as it was, but rather regarding leaving her to her own devices.
Up among the stars, he’d thought of the girl as a hypercompetent Abh exemplar, but now he’d witnessed how little thought she put in things that were the most basic common sense for him.
Don’t worry, she’ll be fine, he persuaded himself.
Lafier may have been lacking in everyday practicality, but that was only problematic when she was around others. Of course, it would be a different story once she stepped foot into the city herself, but for now, she was more than capable of taking care of herself as long as she was out of sight.
But how likely is it no one will spot her? After all, it was quite possible a search party was already closing in on them, which would raise its own set of fears.
Due to its nature, the Star Forces didn’t put much emphasis on acting solo. It would be difficult for a single soldier, especially one without the relevant training, to be sufficiently mindful. Of course, Jinto hadn’t the training either, but he did have a strong suit the Abh were blind to: there was no way anyone could tell he was nobility unless he divulged it himself. If push came to shove, he could talk himself out of a dicey situation by claiming to be an imperial citizen.
A War Most Modest (JNC Edition) Page 10