Yule Planet

by Angel Martinez

  The crimson stayed as Shara narrowed her eyes. "Makes my life easy, then. You're working with Marta today."

  Hecky's head popped out of a nearby sleep pod. "What? Boss, no. The bubbies—"

  Shara cut her off with a gesture. "Will either accept her or eat her. Win-win for us."

  "I don't know anything about animals," Sofia protested, trying hard to lower her volume even though she wanted to scream. "And she obviously hates me."

  "It's all right, dear." Tre, who had gotten up sometime during the argument, patted her on the shoulder. "Marta knows enough about non-humans for twelve people, and I doubt she hates you. That's not like her. Indifference, yes. Scorn, possibly. Hate? Never."

  "I can't tell you how much better that makes me feel."

  "You're welcome, sweetie."

  Shara scrubbed both hands over her face. "Hecky, get her outfitted. She can't work in those boots."

  Everyone scattered to various morning chores while Hecky half-crawled, half-fell out of her sleep pod and cheerfully dug out extra gear from a storage closet near the back. Sofia found herself with a pair of work pants (a little too long) lined with what appeared to be chionisaur feather-fur, a lightweight insulated shirt (a little short in the sleeves), a pair of sturdy, feather-fur-lined work boots (a little too big), and a pair of polar-grade work mittens (just about right.)

  Sofia left the mittens and coat on a chair and reluctantly approached where Marta moved among the chionisaurs. In the unforgiving lights of the camp cavern, the beasts were larger than she remembered, lolling about on huge expanses of floor and lumbering a few steps here and there. She nearly lost her nerve entirely when one reared up on its hind legs to nose at a ceiling beam. How could she have ridden that the night before? It was impossibly huge. Its short-snouted mouth was impossibly huge. The rearing beast yawned. Its teeth were impossibly huge.

  I'm going to die. Either I get left in the snow or I get eaten by a monster. I guess being eaten is faster? Cautiously, she approached the herd or gaggle or whatever one called a collection of these things.

  Marta watched her from her perch on a feather-furred foot, her expression dark and unwelcoming.

  "It's not my idea. Shara—"

  With a huff, Marta cut her off and pointed to her own ear, apparently saying that she had heard. Then she patted the foot she'd been using as a settee and pointed to a dark mass lined up along the near wall. Sofia peered and squinted at it until she made out the shapes of saddles and harnesses.

  "You want me to bring those? To get these…" Monstrous predatory hulks. "The chionisaurs ready?"

  Another more imperious point, and Sofia raised both hands, irritated beyond words. She was trying, even though she didn't know a damn thing about what she was supposed to do. Once she reached the wall, her irritation only grew. What were all these straps and strips and pads? She tried to remember what she'd seen the day before and how it had all been attached. It probably didn't make any difference. She still had to bring all the stuff over.

  On her first try, she scooped up a bunch of straps in both arms. As she tried to turn and bring them over, they were connected to other straps that trailed behind, tripped her, and pitched her onto the pile of leather she was carrying. Marta might not have been willing to say anything, but she did do an impressive exasperated sound.

  Boots stomped over to where Sofia sprawled across harness material. Marta grabbed her arm and heaved her off the pile with a sigh. Then she sat, indicating that Sofia should join her, and untangled the mess of straps into their proper configurations. What Sofia had snagged were three harnesses, only two of them the same kind.

  Dark eyes bored into Sofia for a long, uncomfortable moment before Marta held up a finger. Wait there. She brought several other things from the wall and laid everything out separately in a neat row. The first thing she patted was a large oval pad with the climbing straps Sofia recognized.

  "Got it. That's a saddle."

  Marta moved another type of harness closer to the saddle.

  "And those go together. That's the, um, attachy part."

  It wasn't quite an eye roll, but Marta's squint was as good as one. She moved the other kind of harness away, making shoving motions at it in the air with both hands.

  "Those are for something else."

  With a nod, Marta scooped up the saddle, checked something underneath, and trudged over to the largest of the riding beasts. She tapped the chionisaur behind one front leg. It huffed at her, and she tapped more insistently. With a whuffling grunt, it lay down so its back only rose less than two meters over the floor instead of three or more. Marta tossed the saddle contraption over the chionisaur's back, then turned to Sofia and cleared her throat. Loudly.

  "What?" Sofia looked around in confusion, her face heating when she realized she was supposed to bring the other half of the harness. Muttering to herself, she gathered the straps up carefully so she wouldn't trip this time. "If you needed it, why didn't you bring both over at the same time?"

  If Marta heard her, she ignored it. Instead, she took the harness from Sofia and shook it out, showing her which way to hold it before she slipped it over the beast's head to settle on its shoulders.

  "Up, Shadow." Marta finally spoke, not to Sofia, but to the animal, her voice low and throaty.

  Shadow—and now Sofia recalled this was Shara's mount, the one she'd suggested feeding Sofia to—rose with the same gusty grunt and stood still, straps hanging down every which way. With deft, quick movements, Marta pulled and shoved, looped and buckled, until the harness sat secure across Shadow's chest and the saddle tight against his—her?—back.

  Sofia understood the next pointing to mean she was to fetch another saddle harness set, and she did this, picking up one of each this time instead of any random handful of straps. She was pleased with herself until Marta took a quick look at her choices and tossed them back at her.

  "What? What now? It's one of each. Just like that…Shadow's wearing!"

  No answer. Just another angry pointing at the harnesses along the wall. Exasperated, cursing under her breath, Sofia went back to try again. Three more times she tried and each time had the harnesses rudely tossed back at her. She finally threw the harness she'd picked on the floor and was about to give Marta a forceful piece of her mind when Hecky popped up between them.

  "Oh, hey! Breakfast's almost ready and only Shadow's saddled? Shara's gonna pop a gasket if the bubbies aren't ready to go. What's…?"

  Hecky trailed off, heading whipping back and forth between Sofia and Marta's angry expressions. She pulled in a quick breath, checked the harness Sofia had dropped, and let out a soft ooooh. Fingers of one hand tapping her lips, she grabbed Sofia by the arm and pulled her back over to the harness wall.

  "Okay, I'll help so we get this done faster." Hecky picked up a saddle and turned it over. "See, the bubbies all have harnesses fitted to them. I know they probably all look the same to you right now—they did to me, too, at first—but they're all different sizes, like people are. You gotta check underneath for the number, and that's how you match them up." She pointed to a "7" burned into the leather under the saddle, then picked up a nearby harness to show Sofia the matching number inside the chest strap. "See? So this one's Popsicle's, and she's mine, so I named her, though you probably guessed that. But each bub has their own set. Mart's standing over by Windsong. She's Lanel's, and that means you wanna find a three."

  "Why couldn't she tell me any of this?"

  Hecky tipped her head, scratching at her curls. "Besides the fact she's not gonna talk to you yet? It's kinda hard for her to tell you stuff when you're all mad and prickly."

  "You're saying I'm—" Sofia banged her head against the wall. Once. Twice. A third time. "Fine. I got it." Then belatedly, after she'd found both "3's", "Thanks."

  "No big." Hecky grinned as she bounded away to saddle her chionisaur unassisted.

  This time Marta accepted the harness set, her expression still sharp but no longer angry. With ge
stures and demonstrations, she showed Sofia how to place each strap and how everything fastened, while Sofia tried her best to ignore the fact that she was tugging and fussing around something that could turn its head any moment and eat her.

  Still, every time the beast shifted, she jumped, her heart hammering to get out.

  With Marta's help, she managed to get two mounts ready in the time it took Hecky to equip the other four and the beasts that got harnesses without saddles. But it was something, right? She was learning to do something useful. Scary, but useful. Problem was it was all so physical. They hadn't even had breakfast, and she was already so tired and sore from the ride the day before.

  Petey set two capsules beside Sofia's place at the table. "You'll need those, I'm afraid. It takes a couple of days to get accustomed to riding our large friends."

  "But it gets better, right?" Sofia downed the painkillers without complaint, though she doubted they'd help much.

  "First day will be bad," Fiero advised without looking up from her oatmeal. "Second day'll be worse. If it's not better by the fourth, probably never will be."

  Tre, maneuvering behind her to reach their seat, leaned down for a quick hug. "Our ray of sunshine. Never change."

  Fiero's only answer was a rude gesture, but instead of it causing an argument, everyone just laughed. This is ridiculous. Sofia looked from one face to another, from where Lanel leaned his head on Petey's shoulder.… This is a miserable life to lead, beyond civilization, in this frozen, unforgiving landscape. How can they be so… so…Tre snuggled up against Petey's side, and Hecky bounced in her chair and chattered at Shara.

  She didn't even have a word for it, this contented sharing of each other's company in this situation. It made no sense. They were probably all crazy, or maybe prison colonies were even worse than she'd been told, and this was somehow better. Horrifying thought.

  Not that she had much time to mull over the odd, unhinged camaraderie. Breakfast was a brisk affair, clean up and shut down of the camp happened with dizzying speed, and before Sofia was ready, Shara was opening the huge cavern door and letting in the frigid wilderness.

  In the act of fastening up her long coat, Shara gestured toward one of the beasts. "Tourist Girl, you're with Marta on Snowglider today."

  Through gritted teeth, Sofia protested, "My name is Sofia."

  "Try not to pick fights and get eaten."

  "That's not—" But Shara had turned away and was already clambering up into Shadow's saddle. Sofia's scathing retort died on the cold floor, and she turned instead, scrambling between table-sized feet as the beasts began to move, to try to locate Marta. When one of the beasts turned and blocked her path, she tilted her head back.

  "Oh. There you are." Sofia held up a hand. "Could you help me up?"

  Marta frowned down at her and patted the saddle behind her.

  "Yes, I know I'm supposed to be up there. Give me a hand?"

  The frown only darkened as Marta pointed to the belly strap with its footholds and knobs. Fine. You want me to show you I'm not incompetent? Great. Her anger lending her momentum, Sofia grasped the nearest knob, scrabbled to find a foothold, and fell on her ass. As she picked herself up, she was sure Marta would be laughing. No. She just sat there waiting with that dark, inscrutable frown.

  Sofia's second attempt was a little better, starting with a foothold, but her foot slipped before she could get the other foot on one of the knobs. Finally she had it, with both hands reaching as high as she could for knobs and then half-pulling, half-kicking her way up. Her arms were on fire by the time she reached the top, and the best she could do was an ungraceful flop on her belly across the saddle.

  By this time, the other chionisaurs were moving out, pacing atop the newly fallen powder on their wide snowshoe feet. Marta finally took pity on Sofia, grabbed her by the back of her coat, and hauled her upright in the saddle. For a small person, she was shockingly strong.

  The ride was absolute misery. Sofia's already aching thighs soon burned from the unaccustomed riding, and she tried her best to shift positions only when she couldn't stand it anymore. The wind blew relentlessly, making her glad for the face mask attached to her hood. For most of the morning, Marta was nothing but a white-gray blob in front of her, and the other chionisaurs just ghosts in the snow.

  Around what Sofia thought might be noon, the clouds cleared, both better and worse for visibility with the sun glaring off the snow. Even with the goggles, looking out across the white landscape for more than a quick glance was eye watering. The better part was being able to see Marta clearly.

  Sofia had wondered how she rode astride, since her legs were shorter than everyone else's. The answer was that she didn't. She tucked one leg up as if she were starting to sit cross-legged and let the other leg hang over the side. When Sofia tried it, Snowglider's back and forth sway nearly toppled her off, and Marta hadn't given her permission to hang on as Tre had. Soon Sofia had a solution, though. If she held onto the topmost climbing knob on her bent-leg side, she kept her balance nicely.

  Such a little thing, but she felt proud for figuring it out.

  A little while later, Marta half-turned in the saddle, maybe to check if Sofia had fallen off yet. Her expression remained hidden behind face mask and goggles, but her head moved as she looked Sofia up and down. The nod might even have been one of approval, and she handed Sofia a tab meal from her coat.

  Sofia's bit of hard-won happy scattered. They would be eating in the saddle and riding until they arrived at the next camp. I already can't feel my butt, damn it. Since there wasn't a single thing she could do about it, she pulled the tab that started a chemical reaction in the packet's lining to heat the meal, opened the inner pouch, and ate what she guessed was supposed to be beef stew.

  The brown goop with chunks was warm and really, that was all that mattered. Of course, the warmth also highlighted how cold she was. And that she had to pee. Either everyone else had some secret absorption garment under their clothes, or they'd trained their bodies not to during these long rides, but no one suggested they stop for a rest break. Not that she thought trying to pee in the snow with the frigid winds blowing was anything close to a good idea.

  It could've been an hour or three later when they finally reached the next camp. The clouds had moved back in to block the sun, and Sofia had lost all sense of time, her thoughts consumed by uncomfortable misery. As soon as the little caravan stopped, she slithered down Snowglider's belly strap, the knobs catching painfully on tender parts, and deeper snow trickling into her boots on her hard landing. Her legs crumpled, pitching her into the snow on hands and knees, with more snow sliding into her mittens.

  A hand grabbed the back of her coat and lifted her to her feet as if she were a drowned kitten. Shara's bellow was unmistakable even through the wind. "Get your ass inside, Tourist Girl, before you're just another snowdrift!"

  Biting her lip against the pins and needles in her legs and the urgent pain of her bladder, Sofia would've been happy to dash inside as soon as the door to this new camp rose high enough. In the new snow, she had to content herself to a dogged shuffle.

  Petey steadied her as she staggered onto flooring. "Aren't you supposed to—?"

  "Latrine!" Sofia gasped out.

  "I see." Petey pointed and was kind enough not to laugh. "Over on the left-hand wall in this building. Tre's in there, but they never take long."

  In the end Sofia made it, barely, without humiliating herself further, groaning with relief as she emptied her bladder.

  "No more coffee for you," Fiero muttered darkly when Sofia opened the door and staggered past.

  The rest of the evening blurred past in a stream of exhaustion. She had vague memories later of helping with harnesses, of trying not to fall asleep at the dinner table, and of collapsing, whimpering, into a sleep pod that smelled of just-unpacked chemicals. She regretted her choice to work deeply and fell asleep worrying at how she might ask Shara if she could be baggage after all.

  *
* *

  I'm going to die. I can't move and I'm going to die. Sofia's first thoughts when the lights woke her the next morning weren't much cheerier than the night before. The pod tried its best not to let her out. Her clothes weighed four hundred kilos when she tried to pull them on. She shuffled instead of walking, hunched over as if she'd aged seventy years.

  Her day didn't get any better during her cautious approach toward the chionisaurs. Marta was there already, still silent, her dark frown still in place. Sure that another silent argument was about to start, Sofia rehearsed all of her possible arguments about doing the best she could and not being able to lift her arms above her shoulders. But Marta surprised her, simply gesturing for Sofia to join her by the wall, where she demonstrated several stretches for arms and legs.

  Sofia didn't feel too much better afterward, though she could stand up straight and move her limbs to some degree. Fetching harnesses and saddles hurt, yes, but she managed and even put one of the saddles on by herself, and while Marta didn't speak, she was helpful and instructive rather than obstructive that morning. Hecky came to assist again but only managed to harness two of the non-saddle beasts before they'd finished.

  "What are they for?" Sofia asked while Hecky finished buckling the last strap.

  "For?"

  "The ones without saddles? Why are they here if no one rides them?"

  "Oh, right right right. Didn't get the question. Moon, Sky, and Star all pull the sledges. Once we get to the drop point, there'll be stuff to haul. Sometimes tons of stuff. The non-ridey bubbies pull the cargo sledges. Small cargo goes on the ridey bubbies with us."

  It concerned Sofia that she had followed all of that.

  Breakfast, in a more crowded kitchen than the last shelter camp, was nearly identical to the previous day's, though Petey had managed to find some dried banana chips to supplement. When Shara got up from the table, it was time for everyone to hustle off for the remaining cleanup and packing, and Sofia found she had some leftover energy to help Tre and Lanel stow the sleeping pods.