Vigilant, Aether zipped out an M.
AETHER: Hold reply!
AETHER: Remind her three to arrive, then uncertain time for us to fly ashore and search.
PABLO: Got it.
As if this oft-repeated detail had never been conveyed, Heshper put on a histrionic show of exasperation before sending a crewmember to notify the other afvrik of this “troubling new report.”
On the bright side, Heshper was well aware of their distance from home, and so the threats of turning back had long since diminished to halfhearted grumbling.
Aether stood and observed the coastline 5K off their starboard side, the indistinct cliffs faintly bobbing with the swells. This close to the coordinates, she could very well be passing her people. Though both John and Minnie were sticklers for detail, if the 50th parallel crossed the shore at inhospitable terrain, they’d likely make camp somewhere south of point zero.
She magnified, hazy cliffs sharpening into rich, layered textures of strata—bands of rock, soil, ice, and eroding permafrost. Intimidating surf crashed against a sheer face, white spray misting the air above. If the shoreline remained this treacherous over the next 10K, they’d undoubtedly camp elsewhere.
While a stubborn whisper strove to dissuade Aether, even since before leaving Threck Country (they’ll never make it across Hynka Country), there persisted in her a strange faith—confident perhaps to a foolish degree—affording her a decisive calm as far as John and Minnie were concerned. Even as locusts of doubt plagued her own journey, those two would do what they set out to do. She wavered around 50/50 on Ish.
But here they were! This was truly the last mile. Soon, they might even pick up an emergency beacon.
No more than three minutes after the word beacon floated through her head, a tone sounded in Aether’s ear module, and a little red exclamation point flashed at the top of her HUD. In her peripheral, Aether caught Pablo’s head spin toward her.
“You see that?” he shouted, searching the coastline. Aether nodded absently as the alert opened mapping. “They’re here!”
“What do you see?” Heshper said, stepping onto the platform and gazing toward shore. “You see your people?”
Aether ignored her, focusing on the signal source. Mapping was all screwed up, attempting to locate mountains in the area. The signal wasn’t ground based.
Up?
Aether squinted at the sky, then felt dumb. It was a bounce. They’d aimed a transponder at the atmosphere to extend its range. A very John scheme. A grin spread across her face. She knew he’d pull through.
Heshper was still talking. “… don’t see what you see. Is it this way? There? Will you fly now? Go get people and return.”
Aether faced Heshper. “Not yet. We don’t see them yet, but we know they’re close. We will prepare for flying and go when we have better idea where they are.”
Thirty minutes later, a second alert activated. This one was direct—a skimmer—EV5’s B skimmer. Ish’s. Had they ever found her?
Now they had precise coordinates. Mapping put the skimmer on a nearby beach.
Finally able to give Heshper something to do, Aether pointed. “Please head toward shore. That way.”
Surprisingly absent of grievance, Heshper went to the afvrik’s trailing side and dipped her arms into the two reproductive slits, cilia tickling the tender membranes within, signaling the order to turn. As always, the afvrik complied, gradually shifting course to the precise direction. Behind them, Tunhkset steered the other afvrik to follow.
With everything moved off and away from the skimmer and resecured directly to the holds, Aether was ready to take to the sky. Pablo, on the other hand, kept thinking of more supplies he wanted to bring. What if someone had hypothermia, or frostbite, or gangrene? What if he needed to board someone for a spinal? Once his backpack had filled, he consolidated food into a single bin, and began filling the empty.
“It’s probably a two-minute flight,” Aether pleaded. “If we can’t just bring them back here, I’ll come back for anything you need!”
Obstinate, Pablo shook his head as he inventoried the additional gear. “Nope. Level eight injury. No such thing as overprep.”
“Agreed,” Aether said. “And I’ll refrain from mentioning you’ve had twelve days to prepare for this moment.”
“That sounded like the opposite of refrain. That was frain if I’ve ever heard it.”
Even with talk of serious injuries, a giddiness had charged the air. 27 days had passed since station evac. They were mere minutes from reunifying with family. Aether’s heart thumped like she’d done 20 minutes on a legger. She watched as Pablo went to seal the bin, thought of something, peeked in, slid the lid back on, and pulled it away again.
She powered on the skimmer. “I’m leaving without you.”
He was unmoved. “No, you’re not. Let me just grab some calorie bars. We don’t know how their food intake’s been.”
The fresh rush of launching stalled, Aether’s mind drifted into the reeds of superstition, as though relief and excitement would cue a trapdoor to open beneath her. And then a clamor arose around her. Threck crewmembers scurried from all sides of the afvrik, hurdling over bins and the skimmer to amass at the front.
Translations streamed into her fone.
“Do you see them?”
“What are these?”
“Hynka!”
“Real ones, Hynka, alive!”
“Can’t see! Move!”
Her head well above the wall of Threck cloaks, Aether scanned the shoreline in a panic, spotting the small group of enormous creatures walking south. She closed her eye and zoomed to max magnification. A band of three individuals, one with a pronounced hunch and arthritic gait. All three wore thick, silvery furs.
“What do we do?” Pablo said. He’d joined her on the skimmer at some point. “She doesn’t look worried.”
Aether looked at him. “She who? Which? What are you talking about?”
He gawked. “Minnie! You didn’t see her?”
She blinked, choked and coughed, and shot her gaze back to shore.
“Behind them,” Pablo urged. “Maybe five meters.”
And there she was, full suit and helmet, eyes on her footing, hands free. Aether could even see the spritely outline of her face behind the visor’s glare. The delicate, if boyish, saunter. Pablo was talking. The Threck were talking. But it was all a distant drone. What was happening there on shore? She panned right, back to the Hynka. Still lumbering forward, one gestured down the beach, glanced back to Minnie, saying something. Minnie’s head rose, a second’s delay—maybe reading a Livetrans—and then she pointed the same way. The Hynka carried on.
More furor around Aether. Streaks of tentacles and rope.
“Can you please tell them it’s a terrible idea?” Pablo implored. “You heard what happened when they tried before!”
Aether surveyed the scene, watched Heshper doling out orders, Threck diving into the water with lengths of rope and stretching out one of the fishing nets. She scrolled through the stacks of unread Livetrans.
“Capture one … bring back alive … we’ll be celebrated … ready the nets … tighten the holds…”
Aether spotted Heshper, arms in the afvrik slits, shouting commands. Aether stabbed a finger to Pablo, shouted “Watch Minnie!” and marched straight to Heshper. “You’re going to try to catch one?”
“Yes,” Heshper said without looking up. “The journey will now have true purpose.”
“The journey didn’t need any more purpose than what was already ordered by Massoss Pakte. You’re going to get everyone here killed. Have you not heard the story of the bones in the Thinkers Hall?”
“All know this story,” Heshper replied. “These were not Fishers. Fishers capture afvrik bigger than six of those.”
“Afvrik don’t pull Fishers to shore and rip them to pieces! You think you’re just going to send some Threck to shore with rope, tie up one Hynka, and escort it back out here?”
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Heshper’s eyes finally rolled up to Aether. “No. You will fly net over top, drop on head, and we will all pull.”
“So you wish to drown another one? Drag another big dead thing into the harbor? Is that what the city needs? Another set of bones to face the first?”
“We will bring it alive, as others could not” Heshper said coolly. “You will drop net, fly other rope to Tunhkset, both afvrik swim out, keep Hynka in net in middle.”
“That isn’t happening,” Aether said.
“We will see.”
“We will not see. We will not be flying any net or rope or anything other than our people.”
Heshper pulled her hands from the slits and stood up. “You will do as I order.”
“I will not.”
Flustered, Heshper eyed the crew, all now standing around to see how this exchange played out. Aether suspected they weren’t rooting for their boss.
Heshper poked Aether’s chest. “I will leave you here!”
Aether set a hand on her holstered MW. This moron wasn’t going to strand them all here just to bring back a stupid trophy—setting aside the pure absurdity of delivering an unstoppable killing machine to the city. This was now a matter of stubbornness, control, ego.
“Heshper,” Aether said with calmed posture. “Have you felt the skin coating my people are going to make for your entire city? It’s not so hot here, but your skin is visibly drying.”
“I know of it,” Heshper said, indifferent. “Slow-drying mud.”
Aether turned to Pablo, gaze fixed on the shore. “She still okay?”
“Yeah. They’re scoping out some kind of cave.”
“How much of the PJ did you bring?”
“None,” he said. “I … I didn’t know—Hang on! I have a tub of the real stuff in the medkit! From Earth.”
Wide-eyed, Aether beckoned him on. He pulled off his backpack, digging inside a moment before producing a fist-sized canister.
Aether opened it and scooped out a large glob, turning to Heshper. “May I? You should really feel what has the Thinkers and Council so eager for us to return and start making more.”
Heshper’s eyes popped in and out before slowly presenting an arm. Aether applied a thick layer to the driest area. The other Threck moved closer, beguiled.
“So you see?” Aether continued. “This is all we have left of it, but when we get back—all of us—we will deliver cartloads.”
“How does it feel?” an eager crewmember inquired.
Heshper touched it with her opposite club, held it up to a siphon hole. “Unpleasant scent.” She rubbed some more, spreading the edges thinner to reach uncoated flesh. “Better than mud … perhaps.”
Aether seized the moment. “Note the deep penetration, not just surface coating. While you consider, Pablo and I are going to discuss how to safely retrieve our friends.” She stepped away, yet containing her fury.
Twelve more days to relish with this jerk.
It was too bad this had to be Minnie’s first encounter with these people.
Aether joined Pablo on the humming skimmer. It was still on. “How is she?” She scanned the beach. The afvrik was much closer to shore—under 300m. No sign of Minnie or Hynka.
“Dark rhombus below rusty rock there. They’re inside. It’s not deep. I can see them all. She’s been conversing the whole time, back and forth. She looks like a real estate agent showing monsters an open house. What do we do? Nervous about just skimming on in there. No clue how the things’ll react.”
Minnie and one of the Hynka stepped out of the cave, side by side, into the sunlight. She looked so tiny beside it. Behind her, the other two emerged, looming above Minnie’s head like gorillas with a kitten. She trusted them enough to walk before them—to turn her back. Aether’s smile returned. Of course she’d established her own first contact.
“She’ll know.”
Aether went to max mag once more—Minnie’s body filling her view from helmet top to waist, as if she stood but a few steps away. She was looking up at the fur-clad Hynka beside her, elaborate hand gestures though her mouth wasn’t moving. Livetrans talking through her PA.
Aether set her focus directly on Minnie’s face, held her breath, eyes wide, no blinking, and sent a Direct Connect request.
Minnie’s head popped back, eyes fluttering as if someone had flicked water in her face. Her head spun toward the sea, eyes hunting, shoulders rotating, a hand brought up to block the sun, her gaze passing Aether by, a blink, and there was the look. Stunned. Comprehending. Searching again, and then … eye contact. There she was. Awed, her hands went to cover her mouth, abruptly blocked by her helmet and visor. She glanced down, confused, and then looked back up at Aether, laughing, knowing she’d seen the blunder.
The DC, my love…
Minnie shook out her face, put her hands on top of her helmet, and began pacing just as the DC acceptance toned in Aether’s ear, and an instant later, the first M.
MINNIE: No wrds
MINNIE: o.M
MINNIE: OMG
AETHER: Well hello, stranger.
MINNIE: GET THE EFF OVER HERE, YOU.
MINNIE: Before I swim out there. I swear I will.
AETHER: You made some new friends…
With a start, Minnie turned to the Hynka, squinted at the two afvrik, and then spoke to the three seemingly confused brutes. Aether watched and waited. First one, then the other two, looked out to the water, one lifting a meaty, two-fingered hand to block the sun as Minnie had. Their eyes found the floating things, chock full of strange people and foreign things, and their mouths moved, no doubt with many questions.
“Syons People!” someone suddenly shouted. Aether observed that one of the crew had lost interest in Heshper and the cream, and had spotted Minnie among the Hynka.
Others flooded back to the front.
“It’s with the Hynka!”
“They are friends!”
Heshper climbed onto the skimmer—only she felt so bold—and surveyed the scene on the beach.
“Syons People,” Heshper began, “talk to Hynka. Friends. This is why we mustn’t capture. Or …” Heshper took a frightened step backward. “Or have we been brought to Hynka? Syons People trade cream with Threck. What do Syons People trade with Hynka so they do not kill?”
“That’s nonsense,” Aether replied. “We’re just as surprised as you are that they didn’t kill our friend on sight. Just calm down, keep us right here, and wait for our friend to let us know when it’s safe.”
“We will not wait. The Thinkers and Council certainly knew nothing of these.”
“Yeah yeah yeah,” Aether murmured, sending Minnie a new M.
AETHER: We’ve got some jumpy Threck over here. You’re buddies going to scram or what? Tell me what we should do.
Heshper called, “Bring in the ropes and net!”
Aether and Pablo fell forward, catching themselves with the skimmer console. Heshper had her arms buried in the afvrik’s slits and was reversing away from land.
On shore, the two healthier Hynka helped the third, all three hobbling south, away from Minnie.
Aether pointed ashore. “See that? They’re running away! They want nothing to do with Syons People.”
MINNIE: All clear. My camp is inland. Tons of supplies. Or should I leave them? I honestly don’t care at this point.
AETHER: Where’s John? Ish?
Aether watched Minnie’s face turn grim, head turning with a slow no-nod.
MINNIE: It’s just me.
How … how … How could he be gone? Truly gone?
AETHER: Are you sure?
A stupid question. Of course she was sure.
Aether fought to maintain. Her face wanted nothing more than to shrivel and hide.
MINNIE: Yes. I’m so sorry.
She forced her eyes open. Focus on Minnie, alive, so close.
MINNIE: I have something to give you from him.
Poor Minnie. Poor John. Ish.
“A
ether?” Pablo was freaked. Something was happening.
Someone grabbed Aether’s arm. A surge of tentacles converging.
What the hell?
Behind the M screen, a set of Livetrans.
“Throw them off! They wish to feed us to Hynka! Push them, quickly!”
In seconds, her legs were hauled out from under her, body raised in the air, and then hurled, crashing into the sea. Painfully cold water flooded into her unsealed visor, the weight of her suit and pack pulling her under. She slapped the visor shut, pressed it tight, and the inflow stopped. But the water level was already above her nose. It was like an icepack against the bottom half of her face. She hadn’t been able to snatch a full breath, and the impact had knocked out a fair amount.
A nudge of her leg. A knee to a glute. An arm around the waist. Her helmet breached the surface and she popped the visor open. Water flooded out as cold air sucked in, biting at her chilled face. She reoriented herself. Pablo was below the surface, kicking, holding her up, giving her time to clear her helmet. She leaned forward and let the reservoir below her chin pour out, then slapped the visor shut, confirmed seal, and reached down to tap Pablo’s shoulder. He eased her into the water, waited for her to take on her own weight, and then surfaced himself.
They struggled to keep afloat until Pablo remembered something. He turned to Aether, mouthed “Sorry,” and began pawing around her left breast. A few seconds later, a blast of air whooshed into floatation channels in Aether’s suit. Pablo’s suit swelled taut as well, and the pair looked to the retreating afvrik, Threck crewmembers coiling their limbs around the holds.
Pablo instinctively shouted a muffled “Wait!” then blasted the translation through his PA. “Wait! My thing! The sack!”
The afvrik began submerging, secured bins of gear descending with it, along with a not-so-secured skimmer. A sympathetic crewmember unwrapped from her hold, skittered to the pad, grabbed Pablo’s pack, and flung it into the water. She dashed back to her position through a hailstorm of gripes from Heshper.
Pablo swam toward the orange backpack as it began descending in sync with the afvrik. A meter away, the pack’s last visible strap dipped below. The afvrik dissolved into a pool of white froth, only the tops of bins, Threck heads, and the entire skimmer remained. Pablo speared one hand beneath the surface. The pack reemerged in his gloved hand and he slung it over his shoulders.
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