“How do you know where to look?” he asked.
“Capsules only fall here, when largest moon above.”
Largest moon. Kellen thought about that for a minute, scanning the sky. Sure enough, three moons hung overhead. The blue-hued satellite appeared larger than Earth’s moon. Two smaller moons dotted the sky, easy to miss, not much larger than stars. They were both red, as if they’d been born of the same parent material. With all the time spent in the canyon, he’d never noticed.
As they walked through the waste, Kellen almost forgot he was no longer quite himself. It felt good to forget.
Micro raised one of its legs to point. “Over there.”
Kellen looked out across the rockscape. They stood on the edge of an outcrop where an upthrust fault had cut the land. A wheeled chine the size of a car had been dismembered down below, its chassis mostly gone, only a crushed half left behind. He tried to envision the chine that had done that. Something big, something monstrous. He pushed the thought away, not wanting to scare himself more than he already was.
“See it?” Micro asked.
“Yeah.”
They made their way down to a level footing with the chine carcass. As Kellen stepped closer, the carcass exploded, a black cloud gushing up into the air. He stumbled backward, landing on his butt.
The cloud resolved into individual elements. A crowd of starlings or bats back on Earth is what he thought of, but it was more a collection of flickering motion than anything else. The creatures wheeled about overhead, then disappeared behind the outcrop.
“Mass stealers,” Micro said. “Stay away when hungry.”
“What are they?”
Micro dipped its antennae. Kellen guessed it didn’t know, just knew enough to avoid them.
“I’ll pull,” Kellen said. “You lead.”
Pulling the heavy load of metal, he needed Micro’s guidance to avoid the holes and other treacherous terrain. He was stronger than he’d ever been back on Earth, but even so, he felt fatigue as his energy drained away. It took three times as long to get back carrying the load, but Micro, excited, said it would supply them with material for weeks. It was after sunset by the time they returned.
“Gone out, huh?” Abby said.
“Yeah.”
“I’m glad,” she said, a note of relief in her voice. “I was beginning to worry.”
Kellen felt a pang of guilt for causing her concern. She already had enough to feel bad about without him adding more.
“Did Micro ask you to go?”
“No,” he said. “I realized if anything on this rock will help us get home, I’ll find it out there, not sitting around waiting for the next raid.”
Abby gave him a searching look, then turned back to her repair work. He patted her shoulder. Even if they were no longer human, they could still act like it.
#
Over four weeks, Kellen and Micro rescued five of twelve new arrivals, the ones they missed captured or killed by Gatherer. Did Gatherer watch them out there, playing a game, letting them win sometimes?
“Why were you sent here?” Kellen asked, trying to shift his thoughts.
“Created by making family,” Micro said. “But they could not afford registration. I was out playing. Caught me. Exiled.”
“Playing?”
“Yes. Young play. Children.”
“Chines have children?”
“Yes. You don’t know this?” Micro asked.
Suspicious, Kellen thought, or surprised by his ignorance. “Wouldn’t you just copy yourself?”
Micro stopped and looked up at him.
“We can clone, but rarely done. Usually prefer create embryonic personality, using parent seed code. Most want to create something related, but new and unique. Someone who find their own path, with guidance and support. Do chines from Earth clone?”
“No,” Kellen said. “We don’t choose to do that, either.”
As they continued to explore, Kellen pondered his last words with Izmit. What if Izmit had told the truth? Kellen still blamed him for Sayuri’s death. He’d brought her drugs. Pushed her too far too soon. But had he, Kellen, ever objected? Not enough. Not enough. How much of her death was on his hands? It wasn’t a pleasant thought.
He felt a flash of guilt, realizing his friend’s fate had only crossed his mind sporadically. Ex-friend. Spy for the Hexi. Or was he? It had been weeks now. Was he still alive? Kellen planned a longer trek tomorrow. He would go back to where they’d landed. He needed to know.
Chapter 20 – Crash
Sheemi bit her tongue and tasted blood in her mouth as the shuttle yawed, throwing everyone to one side. Tortured metal shrieked, then groaned. The spinning continued until she couldn’t take it anymore. Even then it wouldn’t stop, just spun on and on, slower and slower.
Sometime later, someone dragged her off the couch.
“Sheemi,” she heard, and opened her eyes.
“Neecie?”
“Wake up, sleepy-head. This flight is over.”
Sheemi tried to stand, wobbled, and fell. Neecie helped her up again. She felt so heavy. Major Veillon had warned them it might take a few days to regain their balance in a heavier gravity field. Her heart beat faster to make up for the added exertion.
Outside the shuttle, they assembled on the dry, hot lake bed where the shuttle lay on its belly. Bleached, cracked mud stretched out to the horizon, broken only by a remote band of mountains. The sky was blue, like Earth’s.
Sheemi followed the others’ gazes along the gradually curving track where the shuttle had slid, its broken landing gear embedded in sediment a kilometer or so back. Part of a wing lay where it had torn off.
“Fucking shit,” Neecie said.
“Hot damn,” Jerrold said.
“Hot damn indeed,” Alvares agreed, staring at the landing gear. “Guess the lake bed wasn’t as dense as we thought.”
“How the fuck,” Tilner shouted, “are we getting off this dirtball now? We’re screwed. That bird will never fly again.”
It was a good question, but Sheemi was just happy to be alive.
“We’ll think of something,” Alvares said.
#
They unloaded the shuttle as darkness fell. Everyone moved sluggishly, what with the rough landing and the higher g. Later, Sheemi stretched out on an empty couch inside the shuttle. A mournful wind came through the unsealed hatch, carrying the scent of salt and dirt. She was on an alien world, but, like everyone else, she was too tired to care.
The next morning, they assembled their two ground vehicles. As they worked, they discussed their new surroundings. So far, no one had seen any plants or animals.
“What if we run across something dangerous?” Tilner asked Alvares.
“You’ve got your K, don’t you?”
“Hell yeah!” several soldiers said, raising their rifles.
Sheemi had to admit it felt good to be armed again, although she hoped they wouldn’t need to shoot their way out of trouble.
“Come on, Sheems,” Neecie called when the vehicles had been loaded.
They set off to the southeast, toward the coast where Omeri wanted to look for ore. As the day waned, the constant jolting became a new punishment on top of the heavy g. The vehicles weren’t much more than metal frames with multi-jointed suspensions and engines on big, knobby tires. They rolled on through the arid landscape in a plume of dust until everyone looked like a ghost, the dust choking them despite their goggles and the scarves they’d torn from their uniforms. Eventually the dead lake gave way to low, chalky hills along the coast. They rose up higher and higher until they were halted by a wall of cliffs cut by the sea. Sheemi was overjoyed to stand on her own two feet again. She stretched, looking out at the vivid green water sparkling with the light of the setting sun.
After setting up base camp, they huddled up around a sheet of vidplast spread out on the ground. Alvares showed them the routes they’d follow tomorrow. Omeri explained how to prospect, what to look f
or from geologic formations to the actual ore they sought.
“You’re looking for a type of rock called pegmatite,” he said. “It might be gray or white, pink or even blue, but it would be distinct layers.”
They would prospect in teams, two on foot and two in the vehicles. Sheemi was grateful to have Neecie as a prospecting partner. She cringed at the thought of days alone with Durskie. Alvares and Omeri would stay at base camp to direct operations.
She and Neecie set off the next morning. They’d been assigned to search north up the coast. The air was hot and humid. Clambering over rough, wave-swept terrain, they quickly got used to wet boots, timing their movements to avoid incoming waves as they navigated rocky outcrops and points and pebbly-beached coves. Sheemi saw no moving creatures of any kind, but she did notice green films on some rocks and once a fringe of orange tubes in a tide pool. She thought she saw movement in the water from time to time, but nothing revealed itself when she turned to look closer.
It was a quiet world voiced only by wind and wave, a nice change from the relentless mechanical noise aboard Dauntless. She and Neecie fell into a rhythm, long spells of walking, speaking only to point out likely rock samples. At midday and evening, they called in to base, sending images of their samples. Omeri told them to bring in a few, but otherwise didn’t seem curious about what they’d found.
“Don’t be discouraged,” he said. “This may take a while.”
“Let’s camp there.” Neecie pointed to the bluff top ten meters or so above.
Sheemi nodded, and they climbed up a convenient draw until the top came into view and the slurp-slop-splash of the water faded into the wind.
“I wonder what’s happening back on Earth,” Sheemi said.
“No way to know. Better not to.” Neecie sprawled out on the ground with her rucksack as a pillow. She unpeeled a food bar and bit into it.
“My dad sent me out here,” Sheemi said. “He thought I was going to get myself killed, thought this would be a safer place for me, I guess.”
“Shittin’ me?”
“Nope.”
Neecie laughed and laughed at that one, then quieted. “I’m sure he’s doing fine.”
“Yeah?”
“Mm-hm.”
She hoped Neecie was right. Stretching out on the hard ground, she watched strange stars appear in the darkening sky.
#
At dawn, they followed an inland route back to base camp, but had no more luck. They were the last ones to return. No one had fared any better. No rubidium ore to be found, and to top it off Tilner had crashed a vehicle, breaking his leg in the process. Their lack of progress weighed down on Sheemi. She tried to discard the possibility they would die here, marooned, but it kept nagging her. Could it be they’d gone to all this effort but might not even be able to get back up to Dauntless, and for nothing?
The following day, she and some of the others slipped away to play in the water as the sun came up. The tide was coming in, clouds piling up on the horizon. The water was crystal-clear, with an emerald-green light in its depths.
Jerrold shouted, and they gathered to see what the fuss was about. Animals at last. Flat and translucent, the organisms bobbed beneath the water’s surface. Each contained a single red or blue bean-shaped organ and rows of feather-like structures along its margins. Waving their feathers in unison, they propelled themselves through the water. Several had aggregated where Sheemi and the others stood. Were they curious?
Durskie stuck in a finger, which one of the creatures wrapped in its gelatinous folds.
“It stings a little,” Durskie said, fixated on the creature.
“Sure you want to do that?” Faj said.
“Could we eat ’em?” Durskie asked.
“Bet you won’t,” Jerrold said.
Durskie grinned like an idiot.
“Don’t waste your pay,” Neecie said. “That’s exactly what he’d do. Then we’d have to haul his poisoned, bloated ass around like Tilner.”
Not long after they returned from the beach, Alvares called Sheemi over and handed her a comm relay. “Captain Ciib wants a word.”
Sheemi popped the vid.
“How are you doing, Sergeant Tanamal?” Ciib asked.
“Fine, sir.”
He looked at her steadily, trying to read her thoughts, she guessed. Was he worried about her? She felt both annoyed and flattered. She was tempted to open up to him as she had before, tell him how she felt much better despite the danger and fear they faced every day, but Alvares was nearby, and she had a weapon to clean.
“The major has some questions for you,” Ciib said.
Major Veillon appeared and grilled her. Was she eating and drinking regularly, did she have any pain or bleeding? As if she were a wayward teen.
“Yes, yes, no and no, sir,” she said.
Alvares sent them out again the next day. A sliver of sun had come over the horizon, and they were about to leave when a cracking boom rent the air. The chine transport, Translocator, dropped through the sky like a stone, then slowed a few hundred meters overhead. A violent screaming sound filled Sheemi’s ears. The superheated air shimmered as the chine fought off gravity, then settled with a thud onto the hard-packed ground.
Alvares walked towards the chine, pausing to wave her and Neecie on. They’d have to wait until they got back for news. This time they headed inland. The relentless uphill sapped their strength. None of them were conditioned for extended exercise anymore thanks to their shipboard existence. Their ascent was broken only when they stopped to take samples or eat and drink. Despite their hard work, none of their samples satisfied Omeri.
“What if we don’t find any rubidium?” Sheemi said. “What if we’re stuck here the rest of our lives?”
“What are you thinking, talking like that?” Neecie punched her shoulder.
“Sorry,” Sheemi mumbled.
“Don’t you worry, we’ll be home soon enough.”
#
Something glinted in the sunlight far down the valley as it moved their way. They hit the ground and scoped it with their Ks.
“That’s not natural,” Neecie said.
“It’s like a metal teardrop,” Sheemi observed.
For a minute, they lay there, ready for a firefight. Was it some weapon the Hexi had sent after them, or some alien artifact of this world they’d overlooked? But Translocator had arrived that very morning. Could it have created a machine like this? Why not? It was too much of a coincidence. Sheemi laughed and lowered her rifle.
“Remember Translocator? It must have sent it.”
Unconvinced, Neecie stayed prone and kept the object in her sights. A faint hum reached Sheemi’s ears as it passed. The teardrop continued up into the hills, dipping to the ground occasionally, then back up a few meters.
“Look.” Neecie pointed out another teardrop in the distance, moving on a parallel path.
“Must be the chines,” Sheemi said.
Neecie got up, and they resumed their uphill trek.
On their second day out, the captain called them back. Sheemi had been right. Translocator had delivered Contemplator to help them prospect. Contemplator had indeed sent out the teardrops. The aerostats, as Alvares called them, covered ground more quickly than humans. They’d already managed to find an ore deposit.
“That was fast,” Neecie said. “Guess those chines know what they’re doing.”
“They brought us back to life,” Sheemi said. “Who knows what else they can do?”
They made their way down through the hills, the sea brilliant in the distance. Sheemi stopped to take in the view. “I’m going to miss this place.”
“Why?”
“Reminds me of when I was a kid, before the Hexi came. It’s so peaceful.”
They walked on.
“I can’t feel the peace, Sheems. You know, in here.” Neecie touched her chest. “I can’t feel it.”
Sheemi nodded. They kept walking toward the sea.
Chapter
21 – Welcome Party
Abby rolled up her sleeve and peeled the thin layer of faux flesh from her elbow as Kellen stared in shock. He’d just returned from another foray out onto the rocks.
“No blood, see?” She raised her arm. “Find anything?”
He avoided thinking about their new bodies, but she had always been fascinated with chine structures, and now she had her own some to work on.
The inner arm shone like chrome but otherwise resembled a real arm. It was strangely beautiful, like the arm of a mirror metal statue, only the statue was moving and talking and happened to be his friend.
“When we left earth, they created these somes to fool us into thinking we’re still human,” Abby said, “because they didn’t want to shock us. They probably wanted to ease us into this new state.”
Using a complicated tool, she opened up the silver surface and manipulated tiny structures underneath.
“You’re way ahead of me, then,” he said.
“I’m shutting off the local pain systems,” she explained matter-of-factly.
When she finished this work, she twisted and pulled until the arm came off. Kellen stared, repulsed and fascinated.
After carefully putting her arm on a shelf, she picked up a new arm and attached it. The new one was not even remotely human. It ended in seven digits, each far longer and with more joints than any human finger. There were also two opposing claspers, like oversized mittens, a drill, and some other tool he couldn’t name. Abby flexed her new appendage, her eyes alight. Kellen bit back the urge to scream.
Abby laughed.
“Might as well take advantage of our new capabilities,” she said.
“Yeah,” Kellen replied. “You can turn my head into a toaster.”
“Next time,” she said, smiling. “I did make something for you, though.”
She bent over a box and hefted what looked like an odd-shaped gun. It had a disc on the end. Bundles of braided wire wound about the barrel like a copper snake. It looked nothing like the guns he’d seen soldiers carry back on Earth.
“What is it?”
“A matter decoupler.”
“A matter…decoupler?”
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