by Brey Willows
There was something about Kylin’s tone, something that spoke of memories soft and painful, that made Jessa decide not to pursue that line of questioning. But if Jessa had to guess, the hands-on lessons weren’t restricted to just building the flyer. She looked down and saw that the forest was gone, replaced by sand dunes with strange patterns in them.
Kylin looked down too. “The nomad lands. Beautiful, in their own stark way. The patterns are made by the caravans that move across them. Sometimes their groups can be a hundred or more.”
Jessa scanned the area. “How do people survive there? It looks so desolate.”
“There’s water, if you know how and where to look. Not everything comes from a dispenser in a temperature controlled environment.”
Jessa felt the rebuke, but Kylin’s smile was gentle. And the truth was, Jessa wouldn’t have any idea where to look for food or water in an environment like the one they were flying over.
“Where are you from, anyway?” Kylin asked as she adjusted their flight path, turning southwest.
Jessa had to think for a moment. Her initial answer was to say her ship, but that was gone, which meant it wasn’t really where she was from. But she hadn’t considered her home planet in a long time. “Othrys, originally. But I haven’t been back in years.”
The small lines around Kylin’s eyes tightened, as did her hands on the flight stick. “Wow.”
The single word was heavy, and Jessa wasn’t sure what else to say. She was fully aware of her planet’s reputation. Othrys was known for its beauty and refinement. There was no poverty, no illness. From afar, it was a utopian world. Trying to explain that it had its troubles like any world would sound disingenuous, but she could tell Kylin had already judged her and found her wanting.
They flew in silence until something occurred to her. “How do you know where you’re going?”
Kylin tapped a sequence on the vid screen and a number of flashing blue dots appeared. “I used a geo scanner to plot the different smoke trails and where they might lead. It’s not pinpoint accurate, but it will get me to each vague area. Then I’ll foot search from there.”
It was a good plan, and Jessa wouldn’t have considered using a geo scanner that way. “That’s ingenious.”
Kylin tilted her head in acknowledgement. “I reprogrammed it to act as a guide rather than just scan. It works pretty well, for the most part.” She gave Jessa a small smile. “Probably nothing like the tech you’re used to.”
It wasn’t. Jessa was used to top of the line tech and had been all her life. But seeing someone build something to spec, something they needed and so figured out how to create, was impressive. Not only had Kylin saved their lives, she was also something special in her own right. A sense of deficiency crept into the back of Jessa’s mind, and she pushed it away.
They were still over the nomad lands when they began approaching one of the blue dots. This one wasn’t hard to find. A long, dark gash in the sand ended in a charred piece of metal bigger than the flyer they were in. It was a piece of the main ship, and it made Jessa’s heart sink. It wasn’t an escape pod, which was good. But it was part of something that had been special, and that hurt.
It also wasn’t alone.
A small group of people with whitewashed vehicles with enormous tires were camped beside it. Children kicked up sand as they chased a glowing yellow ball that darted one way and then the next. Pots of food were cooking over wide, open fire pits. There was laughter and a type of music Jessa had never heard.
“What is it?” Kylin asked, looking at her curiously.
Jessa stared out at the camp. “They look so happy.”
Kylin laughed. “Wouldn’t you be if you could travel the world and not answer to anyone?” She jumped out of the flyer and headed toward the nomads, leaving Jessa to follow or not.
Jessa watched as Kylin approached the group, her hands up and open to show she wasn’t aggressive. When two children launched themselves at her and she swung them into the air, one in each arm, Jessa grew even more confused. They seemed to know her, and when she was in their midst several people stopped to press their foreheads to hers. Kylin looked so relaxed, so totally at home among them, and Jessa wondered what that would feel like. Once again, she pushed away the unwelcome meandering thoughts and jumped from the flyer. Several people nodded and gave her a small sign of acknowledgement, but most avoided eye contact and turned away. So, outsiders weren’t welcome. That was interesting to know. It meant Kylin wasn’t one, and Jessa wondered just how she’d come to know a traveling community like this one.
She joined Kylin at the edge of the mammoth piece of twisted metal.
“Any idea what part of your ship it is? Was?” Kylin studied it but didn’t reach out to touch it.
Trembling, Jessa dragged her fingertips along the side. When she felt the raised emblem and traced it, she said, “It’s the cargo hold. Or, about a third of it, anyway.”
Kylin stared at her. “A third of the cargo hold. Just the cargo hold.”
Jessa shrugged. “Is that interesting?”
Kylin’s laugh didn’t hold much humor. “Not to you, I guess. What kind of ship did you fly? I should have asked before, but I was focused on making sure you didn’t get eaten or caught.”
“It was an Echo Eight Delta Centauri passenger vessel. The most up-to-date luxury transport in the cosmos right now.” Jessa didn’t try to rein in the pride she felt at her answer. She’d loved every inch of the massive ship and had worked her ass off to have one she could captain on her own.
Kylin, however, didn’t look impressed. “Luxury transport. So, people traveling between planets with everything at their fingertips.”
“People shouldn’t feel bad for enjoying themselves just because your planet isn’t interesting enough to land on.” Jessa hadn’t had to defend her line of work to anyone but her parents since she’d decided on her career choice, and she certainly wasn’t going to do so with a woman who’d never been on anything bigger than a two-seater flyer she’d had to build herself.
Kylin’s jaw clenched and the yellow rings around her eyes darkened. “Whatever you say.” She used the twists of metal to climb to the top and walked along the edge. “The nomads say it sounds hollow but there’s no way in. But that doesn’t seem likely if it’s just a piece of the bigger thing. True?”
Jessa hesitated. What was in here belonged to the people who had evacuated her ship. But it wasn’t as if they were going to get it back. It would remain here, on this bypassed planet, forever. Who knew where the other two compartments that had adjoined this one were. She jumped when a couple of children raced around her legs, using her as a wall between them before they dashed off again, their laughter echoing off the dead metal. She watched them go, then looked up to see Kylin’s silhouette above her, looking down, waiting. Strong and solid, she looked like some kind of superhero from the ancient stories, and it made Jessa shiver in an extremely pleasant way.
She moved back to the insignia marking it as a cargo hold. The print scanner wouldn’t work anymore, but the punch code might. She brushed away burned pieces and pried away the thick plastic covering from the key pad. She entered the code and it flashed weakly and then began to hum. The creaking and groaning as the ten-foot door struggled to open caught everyone’s attention and they gathered around. They spoke a strange mixture of a language Jessa hadn’t heard before along with Universal Lingua, the common tongue spoken in the colonized cosmos, so she caught a few words here and there. When the door shuddered to a halt, Kylin jumped down into the sand beside her.
“I knew you were a softie.” She grinned and ducked under the partially open entrance. “Cliff suckers. There’s more in here than even the people in the Heathers own!” she called out from inside.
The nomads ducked in after her, and soon there were excited shouts all around. Jessa made herself comfortable in the sand by sitting against a short outcrop of rock. Though most of her possessions had been on the ship, she still had
a storage locker on Othrys and she had enough on her credit chip to live comfortably on pretty much any planet she chose without ever having to work again. She didn’t need anything in the cargo hold. But to Kylin and the people carrying things out, the hold was a treasure trove, and the joy in their faces made Jessa glad she’d relented and opened the door.
Kylin came out, her arms laden with clothing and jewelry, along with some small tech items. “I don’t even have a pack big enough for this. Lots of stuff is damaged from the crash, but there’s plenty to keep everyone going for at least a few seasons.”
Jessa watched as she carried her armful to the flyer and loaded it into a compartment toward the rear. She couldn’t fathom what life would be like if she had to forage for things to sell in order to eat. The thought made her ache inside, and the knowledge that this planet got passed over because it had nothing to offer was made worse by the knowledge of the position it left the inhabitants in. She’d never considered life like this.
Kylin came back over and sat beside her in the sand. “Thanks for opening it. Taking things like this to market will make a huge difference to this clan when the cold season blows in.”
“They live out here even then?” Just the thought of it sent a chill through her.
“Not here in the sands. They move on, and they take shelter in the forests or in the outskirts of cities like Quasi. But they don’t like being penned in, so they never stay anywhere for long. And there’s a stigma attached to being a nomad. People don’t trust people who don’t answer to anyone and live freely. It freaks them out.” Kylin smiled as a little girl with pale purple pigtails and large, soft purple eyes ran up to her holding out a doll. Kylin took it and gave the girl a little nuzzle with it before the child laughed and bounded away, the doll clutched to her chest.
Jessa could easily be one of the people who didn’t understand. Order, command, organization. She lived by standards and codes and procedures and couldn’t imagine sleeping under the stars and only moving on when she needed food or shelter. Even the thought of it made a ball of panic form in her stomach.
Kylin was watching the group contemplatively. “I think I’ve got what I want from this. What say we move on and see what else we can find?”
Surprised, Jessa looked away from the family unit she’d been watching. “Isn’t this exactly the kind of thing you need to make money in Quasi?”
Kylin stood and brushed sand from her pants before holding out her hand to help Jessa up. “It is. And I’ve got enough to get me the really important stuff, plus a little extra. But this group has kids to feed, and a haul like this can keep them going for months. They need it more than I do. We’ll find something else.”
Jessa waited while Kylin said good-bye to several people, some of whom sent knowing looks over Kylin’s shoulder and were clearly teasing her. When they got back in the flyer the nomads waved from below as they took off.
“I don’t understand.”
Kylin looked confused. “About what?”
“You could have shared what was in there. Split it into sections so it was fair for everyone, including you. But you didn’t. I know you said they have children to feed, and that’s noble, but surely you’ve got people to take care of as well. Doesn’t it feel unfair to leave it behind?” While Jessa understood the concept, she’d never come across someone truly altruistic. She didn’t think that kind of person existed in any real sense.
Kylin sighed. “Are you really that jaded? Does everything have to be an equal portion so you get your fair share, even if you don’t truly need it?” She tapped the screen, moved it to another blinking blue dot, and set the locator to take them there. “Haven’t you ever done anything for someone just because it was the right thing to do, and not because there was anything in it for you?”
Jessa swallowed hard and stared unseeing at the passing landscape. Her mind scraped and scrabbled through memories as far back as they could go, but she couldn’t come up with an answer that didn’t make her sound like…well, like the kind of person Kylin probably thought she was. But it wasn’t a fair comparison, was it? She hadn’t been born into a difficult world. Othrys was based on everyone having an equal share. That wasn’t her fault, and she shouldn’t be ashamed of the person she was. It was merely circumstances.
That train of thought felt an awful lot like justification, and the silence between them like condemnation.
“You seemed to know them.” A change of subject felt like a good idea.
“After my mom died I used to run off a lot. On one of my many trips I came across that group of nomads, and it was during one of their more stationary moments, so I got to know them. They didn’t have much to share, but they had all the time in the world for a grieving child who didn’t know what to do with herself.” She cleared her throat like she was physically shoving away emotion. “I try to catch up with them whenever they’re in the area. I’m glad it was them near the wreck.”
For the life of her, Jessa couldn’t think of anything to say. She’d never been close to anyone other than her crew, and because of the power disparity she was never truly close to any of them, either.
“It just occurred to me. Do you have family who are going to be worried about you?” Kylin asked.
That should have been a simple question to answer, but it wasn’t, and Jessa hesitated. “I have family, yes. I imagine they’ll be informed that my ship went down, and that I’m not among the survivors on Andine.” Would her parents and sibling be saddened by the information?
She looked away from the pitying look in Kylin’s eyes. There was nothing wrong with detachment. It meant you didn’t have distractions.
“We don’t have interplanetary communications in Quasi, but they’ve got facilities in the Heathers. When you get there you can send word that you’re safe.” She tilted her head. “If you want to.”
In truth, Jessa hadn’t considered her family once since she’d crashed. “Perhaps I will. That would be the responsible thing to do.”
Kylin just shook her head, and she kept whatever thoughts she had about that to herself, for which Jessa was grateful. Talking about her family was never comfortable, even with her family. “Where are we headed now?”
“Twenty clicks north of Mount Zulphi. Rocky terrain, a lot like the moon, but mostly made up of ice. Have you ever seen a cryo volcano?”
Jessa’s heart raced at the thought. “I’ve read about them, of course. Is it true they erupt ice?” Kylin’s grin made Jessa’s heart race that much faster.
“Ice magma. It’s super hot magma that rises into the layer of ice and then the force of them coming together ejects them into the air. You don’t want to get hit by one, but when the sun is just right, it’s something to see.”
Kylin’s excitement was so open it made Jessa aware of how tightly her own shoulders were held. She tried to lower them. “Thank you for letting me come with you.”
Kylin gave her a sideways glance. “It’s not like you gave me any choice. I wasn’t about to leave you with the prowlers or slavers. And you opening that hatch has given me a good haul. So we’re even, and it turns out it was good I didn’t leave you to see how you’d survive on your own.”
“But you could have. You let me force your hand and I appreciate it.” Jessa nearly reached out to touch her but kept her hands firmly on her legs. She never usually wanted to touch anyone. Strange.
“Banking left. Look to your right.”
Jessa gasped. A towering black volcano nearly blocked out the sun, and lines of glittering white veins ran from the caldera to the base. White rocks with black veins shot from the volcano, caught the sunlight, and burst into balls of rainbows before falling to the surreal rocky landscape below.
Kylin banked again and they made a wide circle around the volcano. Jessa pressed against the window, wishing she could catch and hold one of the rocks, just so she could hold a rainbow in her hand. As they flew away from the volcano, Jessa kept it in sight as long as she could, then sat back
with a sigh. For all she’d read or watched about them, nothing was like seeing the real thing.
Kylin brought the flyer in to land, expertly managing to put it down on the uneven surface. They got out and she opened a handheld locator. “It should be nearby, but I’ve only got a general idea. I think we’re better off searching on foot for a while. Anything black will blend into the rock here and be hard to see from up high.”
Jessa could follow that logic and agreed, though it was obvious Kylin wasn’t asking for agreement or permission. She was just letting Jessa in on her way of thinking, which was appreciated.
“Have you considered doing a grid search? Measuring out a certain amount of steps in a radius and then moving beyond it in sections?” Jessa asked.
Kylin laughed. “When it’s just you a grid search seems like an awful lot of work. Why don’t we just get as close to the blue dot as possible and see what happens?”
Jessa reminded herself she wasn’t in control here. “Sure. If that kind of haphazard thing works for you.”
“You know, it does.” Kylin smirked and set off, scanning the area and occasionally checking the locator.
Jessa followed, more interested in the landscape. “Does anything live here?”
Kylin shook her head but didn’t turn around. “Too cold. Once the sun drops it could freeze the nipples off a snow cur.”
How she wished Kylin hadn’t mentioned it. She’d been fine since they crashed, but now, wandering the barren rocks, she felt the chill through her uniform. She rubbed at her arms and told herself to get over it and focus on something else.
Unfortunately, the thing that caught her attention was Kylin’s backside. The black pants with several large pockets fit her perfectly, molding to her butt and giving her thighs some room to move. The muscles of her back were defined under the tight long-sleeved shirt, and they bunched perfectly as she moved the locator and steadied herself over loose rocks. Her short, blue-black hair reflected the sun, and Jessa wondered if it was as soft as it looked. Her thoughts wandered to the size of Kylin’s hands, and how they’d feel—