by C. Litka
03
The following round we explored the other half of the island, its "mountains". We climbed to the peaks above us and found maybe three kilometers of rough terrain beyond the first peak - moss covered ridges, laced with vine and jungle canyons and ravines, making the island about 10 kilometers long and perhaps a kilometer-deep highest peak to highest peak. We spent a watch circling the mountainous half of the island, finding nothing but a wilderness of rocks, flowering vines and jungles. Siss hunted, but we didn't come across any threatening creatures. The talon-hawks were likely blown here by the storm.
After a meal and a cup of cha on the ledge overlooking the savanna, we returned to work refitting the gig. It had ended up nose to the canyon wall, which was going to make it awkward to launch, but it allowed me to easily access to work on the stern engine mounts and steering rudders. We hacked out a little grotto in the tangle of vines and branches around the gig to give us room to work.
We lost the wreckage of the fore and aft sections of the gig sometime during the storm, leaving us only the gig's useless fitting to salvage and rework using the printer, making metal in short supply. However, plastic made from oil extracted from vegetation worked for many of the parts including the wing panels so we were not in desperate straits. Over the next several rounds, I set up a test site in the canyon to test the engines to make certain they were functional and controllable, with our newly reprogrammed controls, before installing them in the gig. Reprogramming the gig's program to control our new engine array was Cin's project, since she was adept at altering programs to steal secrets. In the process, I suspect she also took ownership of the gig as well. No matter. Tests proved that we had three solid micro-plasma rockets, and two serviceable ones. What sort of speed we'd be able to obtain from them was a question that would have to wait until the shakedown cruise.
With the main engines tested, we switched our efforts to installing metal and plastic components of the steering wings and rudder. We had stripped the interior of the gig of all its useless components - things like the control consoles for systems lost in the wreck, damaged acceleration chairs from the forward compartment and such, cutting them into small pieces and feeding them to the printer to be printed out as the frames, mounts, and control rods I had designed to steer the gig in the atmosphere. We assembled and welded the wing struts and metal frame on the upper hull, and then mounted an array of electric motors to control the movable plastic flaps. We built a control console for the rudder and wings as well as replacing the storm damaged radar transponder and radio antenna and mounted an array of cameras to serve our view panels.
We ate, slept and worked quite efficiently, pausing only for short naps which we took at the same time, now that the gig could be sealed. I for one, didn't keep track of the time. Nor did I look further ahead than the maiden voyage of the "Phoenix" as I began to call the gig. I was aware of the fact that we hadn't settled on the nature of the mission once the Phoenix was ready to sail, but I'd become so comfortable working and living with Cin, that I could not believe that we'd not find an acceptable plan of action.
Cin, however, was not at ease. The closer we were to the gig being operational, the more urgent became her one pressing concern - my fate. I was not blind to this growing shadow in our relationship; I could see it in her eyes when I caught her looking at me. And yet, I paid it little heed, merely trying to stay as clear of her as possible to reduce the danger of her getting annoyed at me. I didn't think anything I could say would change anything, and I knew that trying to be too friendly, especially before the approaching crisis would only annoy her. So I worked and slept, and tried to be quietly cheerful when around her. That part was easy, because I was, whenever I was with her.
I rolled out of my hammock, freshened up, and finding neither Cin, nor hearing any work in progress, pulled myself up through the access hatch. Looking about I found her sitting on the newly installed wing in the dappled light that filtered down through our sheltering branches and vines. The dead trees that had been blown into the canyon had dropped their leaves, opening up the canopy somewhat, though the native vines were already weaving their way through the tangle.
'Ah, there you are. Just thinking?' I asked.
'Yes. Not much more to do, you know.'
'All we need to do is temporarily attach the steering rockets to move the gig away from the wall, and then attach them to the nose, clear away the vines and we should be ready for our maiden voyage. Just a short shake-down cruise, of course. But, Neb, we could probably get that done this watch if we worked hard.
'I'm going to punch something up for breakfast and then get to work. Can I punch something up for you too?'
She shrugged. 'Anything you want. I'll be right down.'
'Don't bother, I'll bring it up. It's far more pleasant up here,' I replied and darted back down to pick a meal from those that she had programed into the synth-galley.
As I was waiting for the galley to produce breakfast, Cin slipped down through the hatch and swung it closed. That struck me odd. Siss was outside hunting, and we usually kept the hatch open when she was out. Was the crisis at hand? And yet, the fool I was, I didn't detect any fear in my heart, though I knew, if it was, I'd have to navigate this interview very, very warily.
'We need to talk, Litang,' she said.
'Yes, we really can't put it off much longer,' I replied, as I put her magnet bottomed plate on the small square table we had built in the forward compartment. I settled onto the narrow bench next to it with my plate and mug of cha in front of me. I was content to let her do the talking.
She sat down opposite me. 'I truly tried, Wil. I gave you every chance I could to let you live and you ignored them.' Her eyes were dark, grave and sad.
'No, not really. I gave the problem a great deal of thought and decided that I had a better chance of living with you than without you. I'd not survive alone in the Pela for long. I'm simply too Unity Standard. The dangers of space I can deal with. Dragons, talon-hawks, savage people, and loneliness are more than I care to face. Alone. Besides, look around us. Where am I supposed to go?'
'You could've dealt with me instead of running.'
'No, Naylea, I couldn't.'
'You did in the past.'
'I can't kill you Naylea. I don't want to be without you. I rather think I love you.'
'That's either cruel or a self-serving lie.'
'It may be cruel to say it now, as you sit across the table from me to tell me you have to kill me, but it's the truth, and it's no crueler than killing me as a sacrifice to your anger - from another life, far, far away.'
'You didn't have to kill me. You could've stunned me in my sleep and put me in stasis; my hybrid suit was in the locker.'
'And then what? I'd still have to live without you.'
'You didn't need me to warn your friends. You didn't need me at all, as you said yourself. If you had succeeded, you could have then dealt with me like you originally planned, or let your friends deal with me. If you failed to contact them, you'd still be better off than you are now.'
I stared at her for a moment or two, and then laughed softly. 'You know, that actually never occurred to me. Why it might've worked! But you have become too dear to me to betray. And I believe our goals are the same, so there's no need for betrayal. We can work everything out.'
'If you really love me, as you claim to, and feel that I might love you as well, why then make it so hard on me? Why force me to do something I will regret the rest of my life - if you are right?'
I shook my head. 'That would've never lifted. You would've held that against me, too. I am sorry, but this is a rift we must cross, Naylea. Killing me won't douse your anger. I think you know that. Killing me may satisfy the pride of the Cins, but at what price to you? I think, my dear, that abandoning the ways of the old Cins is the first and essential step in starting a new and more noble line of Cins. Break their decadent hold on you. I've met neither your father nor your mother, but I doubt either
of them would tell you to kill me. And, Naylea, I don't really think you can kill me. There is something between us. We can be happy. And I think you need to face that square on, and now.'
She stared at me, wild eyed, emotions flickering through them. And then, they turned to icy steel and darkness. She reached down, and drawing her darter pointed it at my heart. And fired.
In that split second, as I was engulfed in a sheet of plasma blue fire, it occurred to me that I may've been wrong.
Chapter 07 A New Beginning