by Speer, Flora
She looked down at him doubtfully. He had a long, narrow face, the cheekbones high, the chin pointed. His nose was long and straight, his mouth a thinned line of pain. His eyes were large, their purple-blue depths fringed by thick black lashes, and above them his heavy brows were two dark lines across his pale skin. His hair was blue-black, straight, and cut a little shorter than her own. He had the stern look of an ascetic priest of some ancient religion, yet Narisa thought if he would only smile, his cold, sharp face would soften into warm humanity and he would be quite attractive.
“You should not stand up yet. You should lie here and rest until you are stronger, Commander Tarik.” Strange how the formal address lingered, even here on this forsaken planet. Narisa wondered if they would die here, still calling each other commander and lieutenant. She shivered at the thought. If they were the only two humans on this world, then she would have to try to make a friend of him. “You may have been more badly injured than you realize. Have you pain anywhere else, besides your ribs?”
“My head aches.” The blue eyes were fierce. “And elsewhere, but I’m not going to tell you where.”
“Then you must stay where you are until you recover.” She bit her lower lip, trying hard not to laugh at him. She could guess where else he hurt. She had seen him thrown against the guardrail and then the bulkhead on the Reliance. Did he think she didn’t know how the male body was constructed? Didn’t he know that on Belta boys and girls were schooled together, played all sports together, and swam naked and unembarrassed in the warm, silvery Beltan rivers?
Narisa was familiar with the male body, though she had seldom gone into quiet corners or leafy glades with boys, as many of her friends had done, and she had never yet found the courage to do the thing the other girls giggled and whispered about, the thing that hurt at first and then felt so wonderful that boys and girls alike wanted to do it over and over again. Narisa had seen how her parents dealt with each other, and watching them, sensing their deep love, the thing that happened between male and female had seemed to her too solemn and mysterious, too important to be indulged in casually. Someday she would love a man as her mother loved her father, and they would come together in mutual joy that would last all their lives. Until then, she was content to wait. Meanwhile, she had to deal with an irate Commander Tarik, who was determined to disregard her very sensible advice.
“Rest here?” he snarled at her. “Lie broiling in this merciless sun until all the food and water is gone? That would be insanity, lieutenant. If you won’t help me, I’ll get up by myself.”
He pushed himself to his knees, got one leg under him and nearly made it to his feet before he crumpled. Narisa caught him, breaking his fall, but she was driven to her knees by his weight.
“You see, commander? You are too weak.”
That angered him. He put a hand on each of her shoulders with such pressure that she thought he would break both her shoulders and her spine, bearing down hard until he was completely upright. He stood by himself at last, swaying a little, his legs planted wide apart for balance.
“If you fall,” Narisa said, brushing off her uniform as she, too, rose, “I won’t pick you up again. You are not a very sensible person, sir. You are plainly too injured to travel.”
“Better injured and trying to walk than dead of dehydration. Is there anything in there I could possibly use for a crutch or cane?” He gestured toward the pod.
“Nothing.” Except for the broken and useless navigational instruments and the artificial air system, the pod was molded of one piece of flexible metal with a single movable unit, the entrance hatch, which had been blown off at landing and was nowhere to be seen. “There isn’t a thing there we could possibly take with us.”
“Then if it becomes necessary, I shall have to lean on you.”
They ought to have had a head covering of some kind, but at least their uniforms would protect the rest of their bodies from the heat and the sun. They both wore the standard Service uniform of dark blue jacket and trousers made of a specially formulated material that would keep them warm or cool, whichever was necessary. The only color on the uniforms was the red and silver braid stripes on the high collars and sleeve cuffs. The four-pointed star of a lieutenant gleamed gold on Narisa’s upper left arm, the eight-pointed star of a full commander on Tarik’s. Both were shod in low-heeled black boots. The additional elements of the uniform, used only for formal occasions -ornamented belt, wide, red-lined cape, and silver helmet - were lost with the Reliance. Narisa regretted only the cape. It would have made a useful blanket when night came.
She noticed Tarik was staring at the horizon, much as she had done earlier, shading his eyes with one hand.
“Do you see that?” He pointed, but Narisa could see nothing save the deep blue sky where it met the desert at the edge of the world. “I see some green in that direction. And I thought I saw something moving.”
“A bird?” She told him about the one she had seen earlier, and he nodded, looking excited.
“If there is something that big living here, there must be open water. We go that way.” He started walking slowly and none too steadily. Narisa picked up the food packet, the water container and the tool kit, and followed him.
Chapter Two
Tarik had started walking slowly, one arm held tightly across his chest as though to stabilize his rib cage and thus lessen the discomfort he must feel with every movement. But as he continued, he seemed to draw strength from some interior reserve. His steps became longer, firmer, and after the first half hour he was marching steadily along, both arms swinging rhythmically, aiming directly toward the green spot he had claimed to see on the distant horizon. He did not speak at all.
Narisa suspected he was conserving every bit of his energy for the act of walking, and she wondered how long he could keep it up without dropping. She was almost certain he had sustained other injuries besides his broken ribs. She silently cursed whoever had removed the medical packet that ought to have been in the pod. In it there would have been a diagnostic rod to tell her exactly what Tarik’s injuries were, and how to treat them.
Narisa trudged onward, exactly three paces behind Tarik, just as Service regulations required for formal occasions. Commander first, then Lieutenant Commander, Lieutenant last, that was the order. She stifled a giggle.
Never giggle on duty, Lieutenant, she told herself. It was the sun. She was terribly hot, and so thirsty she wanted to drain every drop from the water container slung over her left shoulder. She yearned to throw herself into a lake of clear water and float there, her face shaded by gently arching branches that dipped silver-green leaves into the water and gave off a soft fragrance when touched, like Tarik’s body when she had pressed her face against it. She could almost feel the water on her parched skin.
So entranced was she by this inner vision that she did not notice Tarik had stopped until she bumped into his back. He did not react to her. He was looking at the sky. Narisa followed his line of sight. High above them was a bird, the same one she had seen before, or one remarkably like it. As they watched, the bird began a dizzying spiral, flinging itself downward so fast Narisa thought it would land on top of them. It pulled out of the spiral a good thirty feet above them, hovering just long enough for her to notice that the deep blue feathers of back and wings faded to a slightly paler shade on throat and breast before it was gone again, heading in a direction some forty-five degrees off the course Tarik had set for himself and Narisa.
“It’s so huge,” Narisa whispered, awestruck. She had seen many kinds of birds before. They, or similar species, were fairly common on the inhabited planets, but never had she been so impressed by feathered grace and beauty. The wings were large and obviously very strong, yet delicately scalloped on their lower edges. The body was sleek and graceful, and the head was proud, with a bright, soft eye and an elongated deep blue beak, which was marred by a jagged scratch or scar on one side. “When it stands on the ground, it must be nearly as tall as you or I. Look, here it c
omes again.”
She was still behind Tarik, very close to him, and he spoke over his shoulder to her.
“There are two of them. See there.”
A second bird swooped toward them, flying lower than the first. In the same rich, lustrous, glowing way that the first bird was blue, this second one was green. It came directly at them, skimming only twenty feet or so above the desert floor. Just before it reached them, it soared upward, flying upside down for a few moments before righting itself, reversing direction and flying off the way it had come. Above them the first bird, the blue one, circled a few times, then followed the green.
“Guides,” Tank said softly. “They will show us where the water is. This way, lieutenant.”
He changed course to follow the birds, and Narisa went with him without argument. Whichever direction he chose, it would make little difference, for the desert seemed unchanging. Narisa glanced back once, but there was nothing to see. The pod and the rock formations near where they had landed had disappeared into the distance.
And still they walked over the barren landscape. The sun remained high overhead, having moved only a few degrees toward the horizon. Narisa began to worry about the length of the day on this planet. With no shade at all, they might well be overcome by sunstroke or dehydration before the day ended. She could tell her face and hands were beginning to burn from the sun. Then, during a long night on the desert with the temperature falling rapidly as she knew it did in most deserts, she and Tarik could freeze to death.
She wanted to speak to him about her fears, but decided if she did, he would probably respond with some caustic remark about her lack of intelligence or her inexperience. She kept quiet. She felt hotter and hotter, and more desperately thirsty than she had ever been before. She could feel the heat of the desert floor through the soles of her boots. She could not continue walking much longer. Just when she thought she would drop and never rise again, Tarik stopped.
“They are coming back,” he said, his voice so hoarse that Narisa thought he must be as parched and tired as she was.
There they came, the same two birds, blue and green, racing across the desert at the same low levels as before, swooping past Tarik and Narisa, whirling to circle above their heads three or four times, and then flying back the way they had come.
“They are guiding us,” Tarik exclaimed.
“Your wits are addled from the sun and your injuries,” Narisa cried. “Birds can’t guide people. They aren’t intelligent.”
“They know we need water. I can feel it. And look, see where we’re going. Look at the green ahead of us.”
He was right about that much, at least. Narisa could see it, too, now: a definite shimmer of green, and much nearer than the horizon. She had kept her sight on Tarik’s heels for so long, trying to shield her eyes from the bright glare of the sun, that she had not looked up to see where they were headed. On a world with an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, green meant leaves and grass. And water. She could almost taste it, almost feel it running down her dry throat. In her present situation the thought was unbearable.
“Tarik,” she gasped, forgetting formality, “I am going to rest here. I need water right now. And food. You do, too.”
She sat on the ground and broke open the food packet, extracting two compressed wafers for herself and two for him. He looked annoyed at first, then took the wafers, and a moment later accepted the water container, too. He remained standing while she ate. She drank from the container, taking more water than she should have, but she could not help herself. Every cell of her body cried out for moisture.
“Don’t drink it all,” he warned when she lifted it to her lips again. “It will be a while yet before we get more.”
“Why don’t you sit, Commander?” she countered, her spirits revived a little by the refreshment. “Are you afraid if you do, you won’t be able to get up again?”
“I am impatient to be on our way,” he responded, frowning at her. “I am merely waiting for you to finish resting.”
“I’ve finished.” She rose quickly, completely aware that his words had been meant to produce just that reaction. Somewhere inside her a small, honest voice admitted that without Tarik’s verbal prodding she might well have stayed where she was, letting her aching, exhausted body tell her to rest in spite of the clear chance of reaching shade and fresh water. She could easily have died there sitting in the sun, leaving her bleached bones scattered over the desert. Heat or no, Narisa shivered at the thought, and when Tarik started walking again, she followed him gladly.
They were still a good distance away from that lovely green area ahead, but once they resumed their trek, having the goal in sight gave them renewed energy. They kept going.
The birds returned periodically, sometimes one, sometimes both. Narisa still did not believe they were acting as guides. No bird she had ever heard of could be that intelligent, but this seemed their only chance of survival. Besides, she recognized she was no longer thinking clearly. Perhaps Tarik wasn’t, either.
After a while the ground began to change in character. First there were patches of dry, desiccated vegetation, dusty and gray and stunted, pushing up through the stones and gravel of the desert floor. Then they were walking through low bushes interspersed with clumps of grasses. As they went on there were more and more grasses, until they were plowing their way through a savannah thickly overgrown with knee-high grass, and the few bushes they saw had green leaves and some even had berries. Ahead were the trees, green and cool, beckoning them onward. There was still no sign of open water.
“Underground,” Narisa muttered. “It’s all underground. We’ll never find it.” Tarik did not answer her.
They were both at the end of their strength by this time, stumbling through the grasses, thinking only of those alluring trees, not so far away now, shade and shadow and respite for burning eyes and aching heads.
They were there; they had made it. Tarik was bent over, hands on his knees, gasping for breath, while Narisa clung to a tree to hold herself upright.
“I told you,” Tarik rejoiced, “told you they’d bring us to water.”
“Where? Where is it?” She could hardly speak. She had never been so tired before in her entire life.
“Listen, Over there.” He flung out one hand.
It was true; she could hear the sound of a stream trickling over rocks and tree roots. Narisa pushed away from the tree and staggered toward the sound. It was farther away than she had thought, but she finally found it, clean and cool and edged with golden moss. She stood looking at it, hesitating.
Tarik was right behind her. He did not waste a moment; he simply dropped flat on the moss, put his face down into the water and began to drink.
“No, wait.” She pulled at the hem of his uniform jacket.
“What?” he spluttered. “Why wait? Drink, Narisa. Drink.”
“How do we know it’s safe? It could kill us.”
“The birds brought us here. They wouldn’t have brought us to bad water.”
“Commander Tarik, that is the silliest reason I have ever heard for doing something potentially dangerous. It is not sensible to drink unknown water.”
“Then don’t. Die of thirst if you want.” He put his head back into the stream, while Narisa stood watching him. When he finally took his dripping face out of the water and sat on the bank, wiping one sleeve across his chin, she dropped into a squat beside him.
“Commander, regulations clearly state that on a strange planet, all unknown food or drink should be carefully tested before being swallowed.”
“Regulations don’t matter in the Empty Sector,” he told her with simple logic. “The writ of the Assembly does not run here. I for one am glad of it. A planet on which sensible regulations do not apply. Delightful.”
Narisa looked from him to the tempting water, and back again, not certain how long she could hold out against her body’s desperate craving for liquid. She was so thirsty, so very thirsty. Still, she had been we
ll trained by the Service.
“Look there.” Tarik pointed downstream. A small creature had come to the stream to drink, an oval shape of lavender-gray fur with large round ears and six legs, and a lavender tongue that lapped up the water fearlessly. “I have drunk and am still alive. That animal drinks and lives. You can drink without fear.”
“That animal lives here,” she responded stubbornly.
“So do you, now. Drink, Narisa. That’s an order. If my ribs didn’t hurt so badly, I’d push you in. Drink, I said.”
Regulations required one to obey a superior officer. Narisa lowered her head to the stream and began to drink. Then she put her whole head in, feeling the sweet coolness on face and scalp. She sat back at last, and enjoyed the way the moisture from her hair dripped down her back under her uniform.
“Feeling better?” Tarik sat propped against a tree trunk, watching her.
“Yes. Sorry I was so rude before,” she added, recalling her earlier decision to try to make a friend of him. “I wanted to drink, but I was afraid.”
“I know. You weren’t yourself. All that heat out there.” He gestured back toward the edge of the forest, toward the desert’s glare. “I’ve seen it before - starving men who wouldn’t eat, freezing men who won’t put on a cloak, something in the mind that won’t adjust to sudden new circumstances. Like those in the Capital, never wanting anything to change.”
She decided to disregard that last treasonous remark, since for the first time he was showing appreciation for her feelings. She sat down beside him.
“Commander Tarik?”
“Hmmm, yes.” He was looking into the green depths surrounding them.
“You don’t really think those birds led us here, do you?”
“It seemed to me they were trying to communicate something. We did find water.”
She started to say it wasn’t very likely that birds would try to communicate with them, but she was too tired to argue the point. She did not for a moment believe the birds took any interest in them other than an instinctive curiosity in case she or Tarik were edible or dangerous. Let Tarik believe what he wanted. The birds were gone now. She voiced her primary concern.