by Merry Farmer
“I’ll go.” Beth stood from where she had been pretending not to listen to the conversation.
“Great. Thanks.” Grace smiled. “Gather a team and check it out. Keep an eye on the sun though. Try and be back before dark.”
Beth nodded and jogged off to find a team.
“Carrie went to recruit people to check out the river,” Grace continued. “I’ll join them.”
“You’re not going to listen to a word I say, are you?” Sean crossed his arms and shook his head.
“Why should she?” Danny answered for her.
The two men locked stares. The Project definitely wasn’t over.
“We won’t be gone long.” Grace neutralized the showdown by tugging on Danny’s sleeve and starting down the hill. “See if you can assess the damage to the ship in the meantime,” she charged Sean over her shoulder.
Sean frowned and shook his head, turning toward the wreck.
One crisis had been averted. She would be a fool to assume it would be the only one.
Chapter Two – The River
Grace filled her lungs over and over with fresh air and smiled up at the raw sunlight. The first crisis was over, the next had yet to begin. With birdsong and sunlight in the branches above her, she could almost pretend she was on a hike with Danny at her childhood home.
The sunlight on the moon was different than Earth’s sunlight. It shone with the same intensity, but was more orange than yellow. Not enough to make a huge difference, but noticeable. At the moment any sunlight was good sunlight as far as she was concerned.
“A year and a half,” she said to Danny as they walked side-by-side along the deep gash in the dirt left by the crash. “It’s been almost a year and a half since I’ve felt real sunlight on my skin. I just want to go for a hike.”
“A hike? You’d waste this balmy weather on a hike?”
She caught his wry grin out of the corner of her eye. “Why, what would you do?”
He shrugged. “A blanket on a hilltop, a good bottle of wine, strawberries dipped in chocolate, someone special….”
His hand brushed hers.
“We crashed. No chocolate, no strawberries, no wine.”
“All right then, just the blanket and the very special someone.”
Her stomach lurched as if gravity had malfunctioned. “Who do you plan to share your blanket with, Dr. Thorne?”
“The same person I always intended to share my blanket with, Miss Hargrove,” he answered.
She snuck a sideways glance at him. His lips twitched.
Butterflies turned cartwheels through her stomach. Keep to the Project, Grace, she told herself. Keep to what you know.
“I can’t wait to get out there and explore our surroundings,” she said. “There’s so much to discover, so much potential waiting in the trees and the soil and the wildlife. Our future is out there.”
“I know the feeling,” Danny answered, switching gears. “I just wish I had a gun or a knife or a large pointy stick.”
“As if you ever needed a weapon to protect yourself.” She met his grin and bumped her shoulder into his with a giggle. “This air is going straight to my head.”
“Oh, so it’s the air, is it?”
She shot him a mischievous look. “I feel like I could do anything.”
“Do I need to put a double guard on you?”
Grace snickered, heart light.
Carrie and her team had had a head-start hiking to the river. They were spread out along its bank by the time Grace and Danny reached the water. The river was modest compared to the Allegheny where it flowed past Grace’s childhood home. It had a sparkle that reminded her of better times, before the Project, before her mother’s death.
Carrie saw them coming and waded out of the shallows to meet them. She’d found something to put her long brown hair up with and had peeled off the long-sleeved shirt she wore and tied it around her waist. She looked as fit as any soldier in her tank-top and drab green pants, wet up to her knees. Her skin was pale from space. Although Grace wasn’t one to judge. She was a typical pale red-head anyhow, and without authentic sunlight for so long she was sure she looked like a ghost.
“There’s fish in the river,” Carrie reported with a giddy smile when Grace marched up to her side. “Come look at ’em.”
Carrie grabbed her hand and raced back to the clear water to show her a school of brown and gray fish darting through the running water.
“We need to see if we can catch some.” Grace took the practical approach. “We could do with some fresh meat for a change. It’s been—”
“Too damn long,” Carrie finished for her. “The water’s good too. Alvin had the balls to test it. It’s better than what we’ve had from the vapor condensers all these months.”
Grace waded calf deep into the river with her friend, ignoring the water that soaked her shoes and the bottom of her skirt. She bent to scoop a double handful of water to drink. It was a cold, pure slice of heaven.
“Danny, you’ve got to try this. It’s amazing,” she shouted up the slope of the riverbank.
“God, Grace. Leave him alone,” Carrie hissed.
“Who, Danny?” Grace bent to drink one more handful, hiding her frown. “Isn’t it time you all gave up your suspicions? He’s been a perfect gentleman for the last six months. Even my grandmother would approve.”
“But before that—”
“Come get a drink,” Grace called to Danny, cutting off what she didn’t want to hear from Carrie.
“I’ll take your word for it until we find vessels to store it in,” Danny called to them, hands in his pockets, gentle smile lighting his features.
Carrie narrowed her eyes, then turned away from him.
If Danny noticed the slight, he didn’t let on. “Which direction do you think that smoke was coming from?” he asked.
Grace focused on the mission. She sloshed out of the shallows to the riverbank.
“It had to be on the other side of the river, upstream.” She pointed in the direction the river flowed from.
“Then we’ll go that way.” Danny winked. Orange-hued sunlight caught the warm browns in his hair. She hadn’t seen him this relaxed, this happy, since well before the explosion. He was handsome when he was at ease. It was just a shame his glasses hid his eyes. Maybe a blanket wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
Once everything was settled.
“Don’t you have wounded to treat?” Carrie cut Grace’s warm thoughts in two. She waded out of the water to stand by Grace’s side, hands on her hips. “You’re our doctor now, aren’t you?”
“They’re taken care of,” Danny answered with measured calm, meeting and holding Carrie’s angry gaze. “I’ve set Lois’s leg and stitched up the gash in Marjorie’s arm. The rest of the injuries can be treated with bandages, ointment, and rest.” He turned to Grace. “None of the supplies will last long. I want to see what other resources we have if something goes wrong or if infection sets in.”
“What resources?” Carrie frowned.
“Medicinal plants, sources of water, materials for bandages.”
“You expect to find all that out here? Don’t know if you’ve noticed, Doc, but these aren’t exactly oaks and maples around us.”
“They’re close enough,” Grace said. She pushed past the two of them. They would argue all day if given half a chance. “You should probably start classifying things,” she added to Danny, as she started upriver.
“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” he said, following her.
“I’m coming too.” Carrie rushed to catch up.
They had found the river where it made an elbow around a jut of rocks, close to the spot where the trail from the crash began. Ahead, Grace spotted Alvin standing thigh-deep in the water, staring up at a cliff on the far side of the river. Like the rest of the men, his hair was too long and a shaggy beard covered the bottom half of his face. It was far from the tight image The Terra Project wanted to present of their colonists.
O
nly a handful of the men, Sean and Danny among them, had made an effort to keep their beards and hair short with one of the two pairs of scissors they had found among the ship’s emergency supplies. There was no telling how long those scissors would last now, especially if they needed the blades for other things. Tools had to be their first priority. Without them all the natural resources of a virgin moon would mean nothing. They would be—
“Stop where you are!”
Alvin’s warning startled Grace out of her thoughts. His words were underscored by a loud roar. It split the air, sending her heart to her throat.
“Jesus Christ!” Carrie jumped forward to grab Grace’s arm, pulling her back.
The roar sounded again. Grace’s heart raced as a huge brown animal lumbered down the far bank. It had shaggy brown fur and a blunt snout and snarled at them from the edge of the trees. Grace stumbled up the bank a few more feet, bumping into Danny before logic caught up with her. The beast had stopped at the water. It swayed as though it couldn’t swim or didn’t want to. As quickly as they’d spotted it, it lost interest in them. It gave one more snuff and wandered back into the trees.
“I’ve never seen anything that big.” Carrie scrubbed a hand across her forehead. “Was that a bear?”
“Sure, let’s call it a bear.” Grace swallowed and started forward, legs rebellious and shaky. “It’s not interested in us.”
“That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be interested in it. It also doesn’t mean there aren’t any of those on this side of the river.”
“I haven’t seen any yet.” Grace shook her head and sent her friend a comforting grin. She shared that grin with Danny, but he wasn’t amused.
“Alvin, why don’t you come with us,” he called. “We’re exploring upriver.”
Alvin spared one more wary look for the bear. “Sure, sounds like fun.” He waded out of the water and scrambled up the bank.
“Let’s spread out a bit so that we can cover more territory,” Grace directed her team, heart rate returning to normal. “Look for ways across the river, signs of other survivors, anything that we might be able to eat or use for tools or shelter. We have no idea how many of those bear things are out there so stay close. We can’t afford to lose anyone else.”
Her team nodded and they started moving again.
Danny drifted closer and touched her back. “No wandering off alone,” he murmured.
“I have no intention of—”
“Grace. Take your own advice. No wandering off alone.”
He knew her too well.
“Okay. I’ll be good,” she assured him.
His eyebrow twitched doubtfully and he turned to head up into the forest parallel to the river.
A ridge of jagged rock intersected the riverbank as they rounded the bend. Danny and Alvin took the forest path to climb around it, Grace stayed close to the water. Carrie bit her lip as she glanced from the men to Grace. She hesitated, as if debating whether she should stay by Grace’s side or keep an eye on Danny. Grace left her to make her own decision and mounted the ridge of rocks.
The rocks on the other side gave way to a sandy stretch of riverbank that continued in a curving line for at least a hundred yards, probably more. After that, another jetty interrupted it. The rocks she stood on appeared to mark what would have been the crest of the hill near the wreck. The section of the riverbed ahead of her looked to be on the other side of that hill and the next jetty was likely the beginning of the next hill over.
She began her descent down the other side, glancing up into the trees from time to time as she did.
“Are you looking for anything in particular?” Carrie called to her after they had been walking for several minutes.
Grace scanned the river, the trees, the birds in the orange-tinted sky. She shook her head. “Just getting a feel for our new home, where to build a camp, what to build it with.”
When Carrie didn’t answer, Grace stopped and pivoted to face her.
Carrie hugged herself, staring around at the thick vegetation on either side of the river. A worried frown creased her forehead.
Grace veered off her path to walk closer to Carrie. “Don’t tell me you’re scared.” She crossed her arms and stared hard at her friend, heart tightening for her.
Carrie sighed. “I’m not scared. Really. Maybe I should be.”
“We signed up for an adventure, Carrie.” Grace gestured to the wilderness. “Here it is.”
Carrie clenched her jaw, staring across the river, then brought her eyes back to meet Grace’s. “It’s not the adventure I thought it would be.”
Grace stepped closer to Carrie. “It might not be Terra, but the mission remains the same.”
“I highly doubt that,” Carrie muttered, glancing into the trees.
“It’s exactly the same. Create a new civilization, a better civilization, from scratch.”
Carrie fixed her with a flat stare.
“What can be more scratch than this?” Grace went on.
“Have you been drinking?”
“If I had been you would have seen it. Everyone would have seen it.” She laughed. “I can’t wait to do something that nobody else knows about.”
Carrie shot her a sideways look as they continued walking. “Should I be worried?”
“About me?”
The sideways look shifted to a knowing chuckle. Grace laughed again as they picked up their pace.
“Seriously, Grace, are you sure this is what you want?” Carrie asked when they’d climbed over a ridge. “Is this it?”
Grace glanced from the rocky ridge to the undergrowth where Danny and Alvin were only barely visible, to the canopy of leafy green above them. She smiled.
“Fresh air. No political intrigue or family disappointments. Good friends to build a new life with. Hope. Yes. This is it.”
She broke away to head back down to the river, but Carrie grabbed her arm and pulled her to a full stop.
“Are you sure?”
Grace’s smile faltered at the seriousness in her friend’s eyes. “Yes.” She laid a hand on Carrie’s arm. “We’ll be fine. It’s not like we have a choice anyhow.”
Carrie swallowed, shifting in place. “There’s always a choice.”
Grace let out a breath then leaned close to hug her friend. Carrie’s rigid body relaxed and she let her shoulders drop.
“Don’t you dare tell anyone I’m scared, Grace Hargrove,” she whispered.
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Grace let her go and continued to walk.
Carrie followed. She bit her lip and stared out at the water. “This isn’t the adventure we were supposed to have.” This time her words held a sharper edge. She met Grace’s eyes with uncharacteristic desperation.
“Does it really matter why or how we got here?” Grace worked to reassure her.
Carrie arched an eyebrow. “You can’t be serious.”
“Yes, we all know something happened on the Argo,” Grace pushed ahead. “We all know that. But we’re never going to see the Argo again. We’re never going to see Earth or Terra or any of those people again. The odds are in favor of us never knowing what happened and never having it affect us again.”
“I always play the long odds,” Carrie said as she cut in front of her and marched up the bank to where Danny crouched, studying a broad-leafed plant, and the two of them, out of the corner of his eye.
Grace watched Carrie over her shoulder as she headed down to the river, fighting a frown.
There had been a glitch with the meeting room’s lighting. That was the first thing she had noticed. It had flickered, as if one of the bulbs needed replacing, which was impossible on a ship as tightly controlled as the Argo. She had sighed, thinking that if the flickering kept up she would have a headache before Beth finished her report and the Leadership Team meeting ended.
“We know that the soil composition on the forest side of Base One is suitable for accelerated grain production, but after a decade of cultivation we will proba
bly need to treat it to obtain maximum production.”
Paying attention was harder and harder with every statistic that Beth quoted. Grace sat back in her chair, glancing at the framed posters on the wall and scowling. They depicted various third-world villages from Earth: an African woman carrying a basket on her head, a Peruvian child weaving, a Mongolian couple in the doorway of their hut. The captions glibly read “Food, Clothing, Shelter.” She wanted to find whoever had decided to decorate the meeting room with those trite images and give them a piece of her mind.
Her gaze drifted across the table to Danny. At least he had been the one sent to monitor their meeting today and not some Project boss who was more concerned with alleles than lives. Danny fiddled with the stylus of his handheld, turning it over and over and tapping it on the table. His eyes were tired and unfocused and he hadn’t shaved. Grace frowned. It wasn’t like him to fidget or drift during meetings.
Alvin leaned forward. “Do we have any indication that Base One is ready to accept the changes you’re suggesting?”
Beth shrugged, the glow of her presentation projection emphasizing her aquiline features. “We have no indication that they won’t.”
“A lot can change in three years,” Alvin challenged her. “We can analyze all we want, but we don’t really know what to expect. We don’t know what state the colony is in now because of the….”
Tension spiked around the table as his words died off.
Grace frowned. Her eyes met Danny’s. He returned her frown with the same intensity. At least someone agreed with her. She took that encouragement and said, “We can’t doom ourselves to failure before we start just because a group of breakaways—”
A thunderous groan drowned her words. The lights went out. The ship shuddered, its engines dead.
For a split second there was deep, stomach-twisting silence.
The emergency systems kicked in with a low whir that rose like an off-key song. Red-tinted lights clicked on around the corners of the meeting room, flashing along the floor. The blare of the alarm sirens followed. The air was tight with swallowed panic.
“Full system failure,” a recorded voice announced over the PA system. “Proceed to the nearest emergency ship immediately.”