by Merry Farmer
“What kind of animals did these come from?” Grace asked. She needed to keep the dialog going, needed to learn as much as she could from Kinn and his men. They had been on the moon longer. They knew more. She needed to keep the testosterone in check.
“Deer.” Kinn answered with a shrug. “Or close to deer. Wolf.”
He pointed to a gray fur as one of his men handed it to Carrie. Carrie’s eyes went round and she brought the skin to stand by Grace’s side.
“Some kind of mountain lion-looking thing.” He nodded to a light brown skin that had been put on the ground. “They’re good for cover mostly, clothing.”
“I see.” Grace nodded, stroking the wolf skin Carrie held. She thought she could feel her friend trembling. “How did you get the hide to be so soft, like it’s been treated?”
Kinn sniffed. “I dunno. The women figured something out.”
“Maybe they can teach us to do the same,” she spoke her thoughts aloud. “When we join your camp.”
Kinn neither agreed with her nor contradicted her. “This is for you.” He shrugged the large brown skin from his shoulder and presented it to her. “It’s bear.”
Grace blinked, her face burning pink. “Ah, thanks.”
She reached out hesitantly. Kinn shifted the huge fur to her. It was heavier than she thought it would be and she sagged under the weight, nearly dropping it.
“You. Help her,” Kinn ordered Dave.
“I’ve got it, thanks.” Grace sent Dave an apologetic smile.
Before Kinn could protest, Sean marched forward and took the heavy skin from her, sending a warning glance to his rival. Grace had no choice but to let the fur go, well aware of the sudden flicker of anger in Kinn’s eyes.
“It’s lovely.”
She stopped Sean from walking away by petting the fur, turning the edge over to get a look at the way the back had been treated. It was vital for her to show her appreciation for the gift. She understood all too well why Kinn would hesitate to allow people who were hostile toward him into his camp.
She turned back to Kinn with a bright smile. “Is there anything you need from us? Anything we can do for you?”
“Grace,” Sean snapped.
Carrie opened her mouth to protest. Grace stopped both of them by raising her hand.
Kinn burst into a chuckle, as if the whole scene were a joke. The way he watched her sent chills down her spine. Everything in her wanted to back away from him.
“I’m sure I’ll think of something,” Kinn said.
“All right.”
Grace shifted her weight. Kinn stood where he was, watching her, unmoving. Everyone waited.
“You brought fire.” She nodded to two of the soldiers carrying torches at the back. Strange as it felt to accept so basic a gift, it would save them a ton of time. “Are the fire pits ready?”
She turned to Dave, who had ditched his gun and approached from the side.
“Some,” he answered, rubbing his beard.
“Good. Help them light the ones that are ready. We can light the others from that.”
Kinn made a subtle gesture to the soldiers carrying the torches and they followed Dave’s direction to the fire pits further up the hill.
Grace had no idea what else to say. She only had a vague plan for what to do with her own people, how to get them started down the path they would inevitably have to walk. She was far from comfortable taking the lead with Kinn. If she had trusted Sean to handle the interaction with the delicacy it needed she would have hung back and watched.
She glanced over her shoulder to check on the activity in the camp. Stacey and a small group were unwrapping bundles of raw meat that had been covered with large, flat leaves. Dave had taken a torch from one of the soldiers and was lighting a fire pit halfway up the hill. Another group had gathered around the furs and were holding them up and discussing what to do with them.
Her glance strayed across Danny and stopped when she met his eyes. At some point he had backed away from the confrontation, observing it from a distance. His expression was cautious, protective. His eyes softened and he nodded when he caught her looking to him.
She turned back to Kinn with renewed purpose. “Did you find the other wreck?” The sooner their three groups got together to talk survival the better.
At first Kinn didn’t answer. Grace waited, trying in vain to read his blank expression. Sean shifted at her side, adjusting the heavy fur. Kinn flashed a stare in his direction, then met Grace’s eyes.
“We found their camp. We didn’t talk to them.”
“Why not?” Sean demanded.
Kinn passed his crossbow to his other hand, standing taller. “They didn’t see us.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Are you sure you won’t reconsider your decision and let us join you in your camp?” Grace interrupted whatever pot Sean was trying to stir. “We all need to come together as soon as possible,” she addressed Kinn. “One way or another we have a civilization to build here. Our three groups can’t do that effectively without the others. The Terra Project is over for us but the intent behind it is still the same.”
“Fine, but we’re staying where we are, and you’re staying away from the others,” Kinn ordered.
Grace balked. “We need to make contact, see if they need help.”
“Stay away from them,” Kinn repeated. A humorless grin tickled the corners of his hard mouth. “Stay away from him too.” He pointed to Sean as he turned to go. “I don’t like him.”
“I appreciate the concern, but you don’t have the right to tell me—”
“You have maybe an hour until dark,” he ignored her. “Get all of your fires lit. Watch out for wolves.”
Carrie was too late strangling the groan that escaped from her throat. Grace tried to send her a comforting look. Kinn gestured to his men and they started jogging back down the hill toward the river. He paused to turn toward Grace, walking backwards.
“Next time you decide to go swimming in the river, check for snakes.”
Indignation warred with fear in her chest. “I will,” she muttered, her voice weaker than she wanted it to be. Wolves she could handle, bears she could deal with. Snakes gave her the willies. “Thank you. Sleep well.”
He nodded again and jogged away to join his men.
“Well, he’s certainly full of himself,” Carrie muttered as soon as the soldiers were out of earshot.
“What do you think you’re playing at, Grace?” Sean asked.
Grace let out the breath she’d been holding and answered, “Diplomacy, Sean.”
“Do you know who you’re dealing with? I recognize him from the Argo.”
“There were a lot of soldiers on the ship and they were all tough like that.”
She reached to yank the bear skin out of his grasp. It was almost too heavy for her.
“Sean is right,” Carrie added her two cents as Danny joined their group, taking the bear skin from her as she struggled with it. Grace sent her friend a questioning glance and Carrie rushed on, “I didn’t trust him from the moment I saw him with you at the river.”
Grace sighed, dropping her arms as Danny hoisted the heavy fur over his shoulder.
“I don’t really trust him either. But we have to get along with him. I’m worried that our survival depends on it.”
Carrie and Sean both moved to speak, but Danny beat them to it. “They’re gone. Whatever we do, we don’t have to do it tonight. What we have to do tonight is eat and sleep. That’s it.”
“Thank you, Danny,” Grace agreed.
Carrie continued to look sullen and Sean clenched his jaw like he wanted to throw a punch at Danny. Grace had half a mind to knock all of their heads together.
“Now let’s figure out how to cook that meat they brought us so that we don’t have to eat pre-packaged nutrition bars again.”
“Where do you want this?” Danny cut off any other protests Sean or Carrie might have been tempted to make by g
esturing with the bear fur.
Grace was happy to turn her attention to something more concrete and practical.
“Let’s take it up the hill to that little clearing near the crest. I want to sleep where I can see everyone and be able to look over the hill into the valley too.”
Danny immediately started to walk back up the hill with the fur over his shoulder. Guilty as it made her feel for ditching Sean and Carrie, Grace followed on his heels. She would soothe whatever feathers she’d ruffled in the morning when they were well-rested.
She spotted Gil standing on the crest of the hill and continued on past Danny when he dropped the heavy fur to the ground in a shallow ditch between the roots of one of the trees.
Gil stood with his hands holding the sides of his head, his mouth agape. When Grace reached his side and saw the rapt expression in his eyes her worry slipped into amusement.
“What’s got you so—”
She saw an instant later. The sun was almost finished dipping below gold-rimmed clouds on the vibrant orange horizon. Chronis hung low in the sky, a vivid ball of swirling oranges and reds, pulsing with storms and energy. Its ring formed an arc of glittering coral that cut through the closing darkness. Along its path were shining dots of white and yellow and pink, other moons and satellites. Beyond and around that were thousands of winking stars. The sight was so beautiful Grace’s heart tightened in her chest.
“I wish I knew which one was Sol,” Gil sighed.
Grace rubbed his back and laughed with the pure joy of it. She didn’t care which of the flashing stars was the one they’d come from. Her eyes floated down to the valley as it filled up with color and mist. “I just wish I knew where the other ship landed.”
Chapter Four – The Treasure
Grace stayed up on the hilltop with Gil until well after dark. With all the awe of telling a fairytale to a child, Gil explained Chronis’s ring and his theories on the geothermal energy that caused the swirls of color on the planet. He explained how the planet’s energy must have affected their moon, allowing it to sustain life when they were so far away from the system’s sun. Clearly the moon’s life-sustaining properties had been in place for a long time, as evidenced by the complex animal and vegetable life.
Hours later, head spinning with new ideas, Grace had wandered down to where Danny had spread the bear skin out for her under the swaying branches of a tree. He’d found a pillow and blanket too, presumably in the wreck, and had the bed waiting for her. But he was nowhere around. She fell asleep waiting for him to turn up, worried over Peter’s death, and the bad start with Kinn’s men, but hopeful about what the new day would bring.
When she awoke to the pre-dawn twitters of new birds and a breeze rustling the branches above her, the feelings of worry and of hope that she’d fallen asleep with intensified. Danny was fast asleep on the other side of her tree’s large roots, as if he’d been guarding her in the night. Sean was a few feet further up the hill and Carrie lay beside a smoldering fire pit halfway between them. They were still very much alone in a strange world.
Grace rolled quietly out of her bear-skin bed, loathe to disturb the others. It was still dark, but the dark of a moon with a pulsing planet so close and a vibrant ring above them was nothing to the dark of the space they had traveled through. She could make out the forms of trees and the lay of the land as she crept barefoot away from her people. At the bottom of the hill, Jonah slept beside a low mound of dirt covered in stones.
She rubbed her arms to fight off the chill of the sight as she crept toward the river. She knew how Jonah felt. Her mother’s headstone in the family plot had become her favorite reading haunt until she’d been sent away to school. That was exactly why Peter was the last of them who could die. She wouldn’t let that kind of hopelessness infect her or Jonah or anyone else ever again. The rest of them would build a civilization, one civilization, free of despair and heartbreak, no matter what ideas Kinn had. She would do whatever it took to get them the essentials they needed for survival, food, clothing, shelter, kinship, even if it meant she was the last to eat, the last to be clothed, and the last to settle into a comfortable home.
The sky above was a mix of coral-pink sunrise and lavender clouds. The river gurgled along its banks, a sound she hadn’t heard since before her childhood turned sour. She drew in a deep breath of the pure air as she reached the water’s edge at the river bend. It was a relief to be alone, to be free.
A squirrel-like animal perched in a tree above her swished its tail and swiveled its ears before skittering off. Grace pushed her hair back from her face and soaked in the sights and sounds of the river at sunrise. No people, no engine noise, no crises to solve for the moment. Carrie would disagree with her, but as far as Grace was concerned, once they sorted out the few hiccups of integrating the different groups of survivors into one new civilization, they would be able to say they had reached the promised land, Terra or no. A colony was a colony, even if no one knew where it was or why they’d come.
“Look at this, Grace.” Carrie had ignored her pasta and leaned closer to Grace along the lunch table, tipping her handheld so that Grace could see the article. “The Terra Project was conceived a hundred years ago. A hundred years ago. It feels so much newer than that.”
“It was right after the Fourth Korean War, wasn’t it?” Grace had gone on eating her sandwich, sending a knowing glance across the crowded cafeteria table to Danny.
“That debacle?” he drawled.
“Mmm. And to think that those people provided our genetic material.” She arched an eyebrow at him.
“That’s what happens when you send drones to do your fighting for you.”
“It’s amazing the States had enough free time to develop interstellar travel in the first place, what with the cold war and all.”
“I still think the Chinese conceived The Terra Project to get the Americans off the planet,” Danny added, one eyebrow arched over his glasses. “What better way to end a cold war than by kicking out one of the instigators?”
“I’m sorry, who are you and why are you here again?” Carrie narrowed her eyes across the table at Danny. Antagonizing him had become her hobby of late.
“He’s my friend.” Grace shrugged. “So are you. Go on. A hundred years ago….”
Carrie dragged her scowl away from Danny and turned to Grace. “Well if you already know everything there is to know about The Terra Project….”
“No, go on. Believe me, I don’t know everything,” Grace insisted. Even though she’d spent the last ten years eating, sleeping, and breathing the Project. “What else does the article say?”
Carrie sent her a glum sidelong look but couldn’t keep her excitement in check. She returned to her exuberant reading. “Terra was the first habitable planet discovered outside of the Solar system. Its size, orbit, structure, environment…everything is nearly identical to Earth, but no people.”
“That’s what started the Universalist debates,” Gil commented further down the table, not looking up from his own handheld and the star charts it displayed.
“‘God filled the Universe full of Earths for our benefit,’” Grace repeated the oft-heard explanation for the discoveries of the last few centuries. “‘And it’s our duty and destiny to reach the stars to fulfill His dreams.’”
“Yeah, whatever. You believe that about as much as I do.” Carrie waved her to silence.
Grace glanced up in time to catch a wink from Danny that nearly broke her into a fit of giggles. They’d spent enough evenings together tearing apart the Universalist debates to argue the issue in Congress.
Carrie ignored the interruption and continued. “Base One was built more than sixty years ago to determine whether a true colony could be established on Terra. The Argo’s maiden voyage to transport the first one thousand settlers landed almost ten years ago. Ten years. That’s it. Can you believe they wasted all that time before bringing in settlers?” Carrie set down her handheld, shaking her head and looking with di
sbelief from Grace to Danny and across to Sean and Beth.
“Yep.” Sean dripped sarcasm. “I can believe it. I can believe this operation is run by people with ulterior motives too.” His gaze flickered to Danny.
Carrie ignored him with a grunt. “It just seems like it should be longer than that.” She went back to her handheld. “And without counting the two thousand other pioneers from Earth from the last two missions, the population has tripled in that time. Tripled!”
“That’s what happens when people have babies, Carrie.” Danny’s crooked grin teased.
Beth snorted. “That’s all you geneticists ever think about. Making babies.”
“That’s the point, isn’t it?” Sean asked. “Reproduction. The continuation of the species in a new environment.”
“Yeah, I bet you believe that too.” Carrie scowled. “Like a kid believes in love.”
Danny sent her an enigmatic grin. “Do you have something against love?”
“You geneticists and your theory of attraction disproved love decades ago.” Carrie sat straighter, tilting her chin up. “Reproduction, remember? The continuation of the species?”
“At least they gave up on the idea of pairing men and women with a computer program,” Beth continued the conversation. “That program was barbaric.”
“That program was the best way to ensure that you create the most genetically diverse population.” Danny played Devil’s advocate.
“It was a monstrosity,” Beth continued to argue. “No wonder there was so much reaction against it.”
“Popular or not, it did its job,” Danny said. “You can’t seed an entire planet with a limited gene pool, not without encountering any number of metabolic disorders and—”
“And how many of those supposedly perfect computer-matched couples ended up in shambles?” Beth leaned across Sean to defend her position.
Grace’s lips twitched as she chewed her sandwich. It wasn’t the first time a debate had broken out over lunch.