Edge of Dark

by Brenda Cooper

  “Yes.”

  The next morning, Charlie found himself looking forward to picking Nona up. “What do you think?” he asked Cricket. “About Nona?”

  The tongat didn’t answer.

  “I thought she’d be a spoiled rotten rich girl, but she isn’t.”

  The tongat still didn’t answer.

  Nona waited for him on the hotel steps. She wore brown pants and a brown top and brown shoes. The outfit made her hair look darker than usual and gave her a slightly somber look. She carried a bag.

  He nodded at it. “What did you bring?”

  “Extra clothes.” She grinned. “In case I fall into anything again.”

  Already she had him feeling lighthearted, in spite of the serious topics they had been discussing during the drive back last night. They had worried at the ice pirates as if they could somehow discern the hearts of the darkest machines.

  “I’ve been doing research,” she said as she climbed into her seat. “Satyana thinks the Next—she hates the name ice pirates—may have stolen the station to harvest our technology, to re-engineer it so that they can come in and talk to us.” She stopped for a minute, her brow furrowed. “She also thinks they were sending us a message, something like ‘Don’t mess with us.’”

  “Has she heard if there are survivors?”

  Worry pinched her face. “No.”

  He stopped himself from reaching out a hand for her. “You said you knew someone on the station. Want to talk about it?”

  “Not yet. Let’s decide where to go.”

  “What do you think of an overnight trip? What you’ve seen so far is part of the fully restored and safe part of the world. I’d like to show you Goland.”

  Her eyes lit up, although she didn’t answer.

  “I’ve a place you can stay. In the ranger station. We have an extra bedroom.”

  She chewed at her lower lip.

  “I’m not trying to get too personal. I’ll introduce you to my roommate and how we live as rangers, and show you some scars from our past and some pure wild places.”

  She still didn’t look convinced.

  “If you’d rather, I can take you somewhere local today and head to Goland tomorrow.”

  “I’ll go.”

  He hadn’t really expected her to say yes, and it pleased him. “It’s a three-hour flight. Shall I wait for you to get more things?”

  “Okay.” She climbed back down and headed for the hotel.

  While he waited, he called Manny and told him his plans.

  “Don’t be gone too long. I may need you here.”

  “To do what?”

  “The news about the station is getting out. People are scared.”

  “You’re the politician. I’m not responsible for the city. You are.”

  “You’re better at it than you admit. It makes people feel safe to have you around.”

  “I hate it.”

  He could almost hear Manny grin as he said, “I know.”

  Nona came back and climbed in, tucking her blue bag behind the seat. “We’ll have breakfast on the flight,” he told her.

  “Over water, right? That’ll work as long as I don’t have to swim again just yet.”

  He laughed. As soon as they were away from Gyr Island, he turned on the autopilot and broke out fresh cinnamon rolls and a thermos of stim. “Ready to talk about the people you know who were on the High Sweet Home?”

  She hesitated. “My best friend, Chrystal Peterson, is up there. We grew up together. We both took diplomacy classes, and then we both realized there wasn’t anything to do with that knowledge, at least until we get to be three or four hundred and have a few million credits. All those jobs go to people with real power.”

  “Like Satyana Adams?”

  Nona laughed. “There’s people far richer than her. She’s just really good at being in the spotlight.”

  “So what did you do?”

  “We went back to school and studied biology. She went to High Sweet Home because they were designing a low-light grain that works like a vitamin. She’s been there a while. She’s part of a quad marriage. They’re working together on a new animal with a name I keep forgetting.”

  Her voice caught, and she put a hand to the tattoo on her neck. A dragon. He’d glimpsed it yesterday when she changed into his shirt.

  He wished he hadn’t asked her. If he lost Jean Paul that way, he’d be frantic. They’d been friends for thirty years. He tried changing the subject. “So what do you do in biology?”

  “I teach. College.” She went silent for a minute. “I hope she’s okay.”

  “Me, too,” Charlie said. “Maybe we’ll hear something today. Surely there will be a rescue.”

  Nona’s jaw had tightened and her eyes glittered with unshed tears. “I doubt it. That station is almost past the Ring now. There’s nothing there, no one to save her.”

  “There’s still hope. We don’t really understand what they want.”

  She watched the planet below her for a long moment. “We know a little. The Next made a bold, aggressive move. If we react in kind, they’ll have an excuse to start a war. When they took the station, they showed us we might not be able to beat them a second time.”

  “Why do you think that?” he asked her.

  “We don’t have any ships strong enough to tow a station that big anywhere.”

  “Oh.” It rocked him a little. He’d have to study up on the Glittering and their weapons.

  “Stations are sitting ducks in a war, and so is Lym. None of us can move, while ships can. I watched the video last night. The ship that took the station—so big. We have nothing that compares.”

  He fell quiet for a while, and then said, “I guess you did study politics.”

  “Diplomacy.”

  “Okay. We have guns on the orbiting stations, and a few fighters out there, too.”

  “Do you have enough of those to create a safety fence?” she asked.

  He remembered the boys he’d just rescued and that he’d promised Jean Paul he’d to talk to Manny about building a better sensor network. “No. But the pirates don’t seem to want to kill us,” he said. “They didn’t destroy the station. Just the ships that attacked them. At least that’s what it looked like.”

  She smiled, a little sadly. “That’s an optimistic take on a horrid situation.”

  “My job is restoration. You learn to cut your losses and support your gains. My family was one of the original group that set out to restore Lym—it’s been all of our life’s work.”

  “How long?”

  “I’m in the seventieth generation.”

  “Wow.”

  He took them over the Palagi Islands and showed her the steam that rose from three sides of the biggest crater and the lava river that plunged into the sea. “It’s almost as if the planet breathes,” she mused.

  He laughed. “It does. Lym is a living thing with many parts.”

  She looked startled. “Really? Do you think that?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Do you ever want to leave?” she asked him.

  “Never. I can’t imagine not being here.”

  She wondered what it would be like to truly love a place. “I can hardly imagine going back home.”

  “You like Lym that much?”

  “No. Well, yes. I’m enchanted with Lym. But I hate the Diamond Deep that much.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHRYSTAL

  A small shudder ran through the station, and then another. Chrystal forced her dry eyes open. Darkness greeted her. She began to wonder if the lights still worked, if they had been turned off in some central place and if anyone would turn them on. The pull against her body had lessened to normal. She stretched her toes and wriggled her fingers.

  The last time she woke, Yi had also been awake. She had mumbled, “We’re alive,” her voice scratchy through the tinny suit microphone.

  His voice had also sounded as dry and cracked. “So far, so good.”


  How many hours had passed between then and now? Her body felt stiff and chafed where the suit had rubbed bare skin. Her thinking seemed slowed by the sleep-drugs, as if a haze still hung inside her brain. She must be hungry, but thirst overrode everything else, growing more acute as she recognized it. She tried for a sip of water and got air through the valve.

  She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, forcing the kind of calm her yoga practice gave her. If there were more drugs, she didn’t want them now.

  The thick darkness beat at her composure, a restless counter to the calm of her yoga breathing.

  She sucked at the water valve again. It burbled, giving her air and a slight bit of stale water that wet her lips enough she could call out the names of her family.

  “Katherine.”

  Nothing.

  “Jason.”

  A grunt. Good.

  “Yi.”

  Nothing.

  The suit had simple display capabilities. She rolled her eyes to flip it on. The pale amber lights of the readout scrolled through the basics twice before she absorbed it all. Breathable air. Cold, but only three degrees colder than usual. Pressure normal for the High Sweet Home. She thought that through. No hull breach. By now, the station would be conserving power and sending or saving almost all of it for the life-support systems. Air first, heat (reduced) second, light third, and then food. Up was still up, so the gravgens worked.

  The display changed, catching her attention. Suit stats. It was nearly out of fluids, nutrients, and medicines. She decided that the suit wanted her to recharge it. It seemed easier to lie there and die inside of the stinking suit.

  “I’m taking these damned straps off.” It took her stiff hands four tries to release the first buckle. There were only three other movements to getting free, all of them painful after being so still for so long.

  Next to her, Jason also freed himself. They stood slowly, leaning on each other, into each other. Her legs tingled.

  She tugged her helmet off and breathed deeply. The air smelled stale, but not dangerous. She stripped the bulky suit down to her waist, letting it hang there. The arms flopped against her knees as she inched carefully across the room and fumbled for the light switch. It clicked on under her fingers, the sudden bright making her flinch.

  Jason’s hair had slicked to his head in mostly damp purple streaks, and bits of it had tangled at the ends. His gray-blue eyes looked wide and shocked. He peeled his suit away slowly, his nose wrinkling at his own scents. He reached for her cheek. “We’re alive.”

  The room looked intact. One of the fans screeched and a motor whined more loudly than usual. “There was so much noise, I expected more damage.”

  Jason nodded. “Me, too.”

  “Let’s wake the others,” Chrystal suggested.

  “I’ll take Kate.”

  If she were awake, Katherine would give Jason the look of death for using the short form of her name. Chrystal found Yi staring up at her with wide eyes that looked slightly off through the clear faceplate. “Are you okay?”

  He blinked. He sipped at his fluid and then licked his lips. Trying to tell her something. Hell with it. She undid his straps and pulled him up. “How are you?”

  “Thirsty.”

  She undid the pack by the bed and handed him water. “You’re suit is dry.”

  Katherine asked, “What happens next?” in a small voice.

  Yi answered her first. “We find out how other people are. Start by looking on the nets.”

  “We should explore,” Jason said.

  Katherine stood, shaking. “I need to feed the animals.”

  The look that crossed Yi’s face told Chrystal he thought like she did, but neither of them said anything.

  Yi insisted they change out the suit packs of raw water and medicines for fresh ones. They put the remaining charged reservoirs into backpacks with the leftover food and one clean outfit each. The packs looked slim; they were used to having their little piece of the world restocked daily by robots. Jason hefted his. “We need more food and a good source of water. We’ll run out up here.”

  “Do we know if we’ve actually stopped moving?” Chrystal asked.

  “No,” Yi said. “But I think so.”

  Chrystal pushed the suit off of her legs and eyed the shower with regret. That water would be there, but it wasn’t a priority. “I woke up when the station bounced, like maybe we got dropped from a tow.”

  Jason shook his head. “I still can’t picture the whole station getting towed.”

  “Let’s go.” Katherine had stripped and pulled on clean underwear. She was choosing between shirts, staring at a white one and a red one. “I need to find Sugar.”

  “Wear the red. Easier to see you in the meadow.” Yi started poking at his slate. “There are people on the net. Not many. I’ll post that we’re okay.” He was half naked and totally focused.

  “Surely some people might help,” Chrystal said.

  “The animals first,” Katherine insisted, opening the bedroom door and going into the galley. Chrystal followed.

  Other than a single cup that had somehow escaped and rolled on the floor, everything looked neat.

  The meadow lights hadn’t come back on, and so it looked like dusk outside. The spinning habitat stood still and unmoving, subject to the same gravgens that let Chrystal and Katherine stand straight so that down was now below their feet and hard to make out. Pieces of the barn and strips of the shallow soil and grass had fallen from above and littered the meadow. Every tree and rock and heavy thing had come down. A few had left ugly scratches on the clear parts of the habitat bubble. Metal struts and torn water pipes showed in the roof. Soil and grass hung down in strips.

  “I can’t see any of the animals,” Katherine hissed. “Let’s go.”

  Yi and Jason had come in behind them. Yi surveyed the room and selected occasional items to add to packs. “Get any personal things you want,” he said. “Nothing heavy.”

  As Chrystal stuck her toothbrush into her pack, she noticed that Yi had holstered his gun on his belt. She’d only seen him carry it a few times. The rest of them didn’t have one at all.

  In moments each of them had a pack on their back. Yi and Chrystal dragged all four suits out to the edge of the platform, rolling the helmets inside and tying them in loose bundles with the flopping limbs. They pushed them over and then helped each other into harnesses. After they started down themselves, Chrystal realized there wouldn’t be any easy return. With no spin gravity, they had no easy slide home.

  Already, the air smelled of decay.

  At the foot of the landing platform, Katherine cried out. She knelt next to the body of one of the jalinerines. Its neck and at least two legs had broken when it fell. Kinship. Chrystal’s favorite. She shuddered and gave a little cry.

  Jason pulled Katherine away from the crumpled body, whispering, “I know. I know. Let’s see if any are alive.”

  Yi glared at him.

  Chrystal glanced back at the body and told Yi, “Maybe just you and I should go.”

  “No. No. I’m coming,” Katherine insisted. “I can do this.”

  “We stay together.” Jason said it as a command.

  Chrystal took Katherine’s hand in hers. They had been in other tough situations. Katherine always came through.

  Two of Sugar’s herd had died quickly, as pieces of the barn had fallen on them, and another had been hit on the side of the head with a rock and lay on its side, breathing but blessedly unconscious.

  Yi pulled out his gun. His eyes betrayed his hatred of the situation. Chrystal was proud of him and sorry for him and grateful that he was willing to do such a hard thing. She held Katherine as Yi silently checked the safety and the setting on the weapon and activated it with a sharp squeeze. The gun made no noticeable sound as he fired it, but Katherine jerked in Chrystal’s arms as if he had shot her. Jason looked away.

  Next, they found Missy, one of the youngest in the herd, awake and bleating pit
ifully. Katherine put a hand out and touched the animal’s forehead, and Missy flinched as if startled. “What happened to her?” she asked. “I don’t see any injuries. Gravity?”

  Chrystal asked, “Can she see?”

  “Why?” Katherine stroked the animal’s neck.

  “The bastards towed us too fast for them. We were protected,” Yi gestured toward the habitat above them, “But they experienced high gravity for a long time. It would be tough. Blood would pool in strange places, and they would go blind before the stress alone killed them. She’s not dead because we didn’t get fast enough for that. Maybe we came close.”

  Katherine glared at the roof as if were possible to see the Next somewhere above them.

  Jason held his hand out for the weapon. Yi stood by his side until the jalinerine—Missy—stopped making noise. Yi hugged Jason and then slapped his back. “There’s only Sugar left.”

  Katherine had gone silent and grim. Chrystal just wanted it to be over. They knew what they’d find; they needed to do it and go on.

  Somewhere across the meadow, something fell from the ceiling and clattered onto a rock, making a loud bang. The group of them clustered closer together. Katherine called out, “Sugaaaarrrrrr.”

  Nothing.

  They separated again. This part of the meadow had escaped the worst damage. Here and there, they passed a piece of trash or a rock out of place. They walked carefully around a tree with a broken trunk, a rock lodged in the fork of its shattered branches.

  Katherine’s voice echoed, bouncing off of the metal inside of the broken meadow. “Shhhhuuuggggggarrrrrr.”

  In the eerie half-light, the grass still looked beautiful even though the tips had browned. The paths of the broken streams crunched under Chrystal’s footsteps.

  They found Sugar near three scraggly meadow trees. She had a scratch on her neck, laced with dried blood, and one on her knee that she’d been able to lick clean. At least one leg had broken.

  Katherine gave a little cry and then started talking to her. “Good baby, good baby. I’m so sorry, baby.” Tears streamed down Katherine’s face.