by Nate Johnson
If they did give up hope, they would lose a lot more of them quickly. She sent up a silent thank you to the Nanos. If it hadn’t been for them, a lot more of them would be dead already. The miracle machines inside their bodies could take care of the poisons, toxins, viruses, and bacteria. Make simple repairs on bumps, cuts, bruises. But they couldn’t fix vitamin deficiency or lack of calories.
The only thing that could do that was food. The right food. They had run out of Creshington beans a week ago. And, had been on half rations for almost a month. It was taking its toll. People were thinner, weaker. Wounds were taking longer to heal. Ahmed had actually gotten an infection on his arm before the Nanos could catch up and fix it.
To top it off, everyone was losing their patience, snapping at each other like a band of dogs.
Her insides tightened in worry. How much longer could they go on like this? How had their ancestors ever survived living this way? Constantly on the move, chasing herds across the savanna. There was never enough time to just sit down and think. To plan, or simply enjoy life. Everything was a struggle. Getting water, finding enough wood, hunting, and the constant movement from one camp to the next.
She dropped another rock into place. Soon, she told himself. Help Erik hold them together. Eventually, someone will come.
Nora examined the marker and nodded her head in approval. It would do.
She sighed and started walking towards him. Her heart beat increased and a smile broke out. It was impossible to see this man and not smile.
He stood alone at the top of a small rise. Scanning the distant horizon. Looking for trouble, planning, and anticipating. A warrior in a strange land. A leader who worked day and night to keep them alive long enough.
How would they ever have survived without him? she wondered. His wide shoulders had taken on the burden of keeping them alive. She knew how he chastised himself over the death of James. Where she had tried to blame herself, he had refused her that privilege and taken all of the blame himself. Pointing out that it had been he who had developed the tactics they used. It had been he who had failed to anticipate the Yarks’ maneuvers.
It was so like him.
Her brow narrowed with concern. She had been putting this off, but she couldn’t any longer. Her eyes searched his, trying to judge what kind of mood he was in. She so hated bringing him bad news, but that was what she always seemed to be doing.
She halted in front of him and grimaced.
“Jo’s pregnant,” she said with a deep frown.
“How’d that happen?” he demanded, as he looked towards the camp.
Nora laughed. “If I have to explain it to you, then the stories I heard about the Navy are so not true.”
He relaxed. “I mean, who is the father?”
Nora shook her head, “Billy.”
“Billy?” he exclaimed, obviously unable to believe it. “Why didn’t the Nanos stop it? I thought you had to get medical attention to turn that function off. Permanent birth control unless she took steps to change things, and that required a medical procedure.”
Nora sighed. Men! The first thing he wants to know is what went wrong and how to fix it. Couldn’t he just rejoice in the fact that a new life would be brought into this world?
“I don’t know,” she said. “They didn’t work. In fact, I think the Nanos are starting to breakdown. It’s like we’ve put them under too much strain for too long. Cuts and bruises are taking longer to fix themselves. Brenda’s going to cough up a lung, she’s got something seriously wrong with her.”
“Damn,” he muttered under his breath.
“Don’t get mad at me,” Nora said, as she stepped back. “I’m just the messenger.”
“I’m not mad at you, Nora, just the situation. We are running out of food, the Kairns are getting harder and harder to take. They’ve learned our tricks. The Yarks are getting bolder, they’ve tried to drive us off our last two kills. We can’t find any plants that we can eat. Except for those Creshington beans, and we left that source two hundred miles behind us. And, now you’re telling me the Nanos, the one thing to our advantage, are failing.
She looked up at him, a deep sadness passed through her. All he ever saw were the dangers. What must it be like to go through life and never be able to simply enjoy the moment? To be able to relax.
Not for the first time, she silently cursed Captain Freeborn and his orders of no fraternization. She would do anything to ease this man’s pain and struggle. To make him forget, if even for a moment, all the things that could go wrong and did go wrong. Instead, to make him see the beauty in the world, and the love that was standing next to him.
Reaching up, she gently rested a hand on his shoulder.
“You will think of something, you always do,” she said with a confidence that she felt to the bottom of her heart.
He smiled down at her, then chuckled. “I can’t believe he had the energy. Obviously, I haven’t been working him hard enough.”
She smiled back at him. “Not everyone is as disciplined as you. They are going to take their enjoyment where they can. Something we should all do, I think.”
Her heart began to race, and her cheeks grew warm. Had she really just said those words to this man? He stared into her eyes for a long moment. A dozen messages of longing and want passed between them.
At last, he broke away from her stare and looked out over the plain. Damn, for a moment, she had thought she had seen something inside of him. Something that would allow him to betray his honor and do what needed to be done.
“We will have to have a wedding,” he said suddenly.
“What?” she asked in surprise. Her soul jumping for a moment, he couldn’t...
“For Billy and Jo,” he said. “We should have some kind of ceremony.”
“Oh,” she said, trying to hide the disappointment flowing through her. “What if they don’t want to?”
“They don’t have a choice in the matter. Not now, not here. It’s going to take two full time parents to make sure that baby survives in this world.”
Nora hesitated for a moment, then said, “It’s amazing how quickly we have fallen back into perceived gender roles. The girls do most of the domestic stuff around camp. The boys get to go out hunting the majority of the time. I’m not criticizing, just saying.”
“I know,” he said, as he nodded his head. “But, it was civilization, and the labor saving tools people invented that enabled people to discard those roles. Here, the right person for the job has to be used. The boys are stronger, can throw a spear farther and carry more meat back to us. Using them enhances our chance of survival.
“You are right, of course,” she said with a sad look on her face. “It’s just, that sometimes, I feel like our choices have been taken away. Jo’s choices have definitely disappeared. And now, you’re saying they have to get married. What if that is the worst thing for her?”
“Come on Nora,” he said. “You know Billy. She is going to be fine. If not, I’ll keep him in line.”
“Yes, but it’s not what she wanted. I am sure that at no time in her life did Jo ever dream of getting pregnant and having to marry a boy she barely knew. She didn’t grow up dreaming of a wedding with no family, under some tree on a dry savanna. It’s just sad.
He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. She’s going to be the mother of the first baby born on this planet.”
Nora gave him a quick dark look. “I’m sure she would much prefer to deliver her child in some comfortable hospital, surrounded by a dozen experts.”
He looked back at her for a long moment, then nodded in agreement. “You’re right,” he said. “But, that is half a year away. Let’s hope we are rescued long before then. In the meantime, we need to tie these two together so that they work as a team. Let’s agree, the baby is what is important. We can fix all the other problems after we’ve been rescued.”
Nora thought for a long moment, then nodded her head in agreement. “I’ll talk to Jo, you talk to Bi
lly,” she said, as she turned to go back to camp.
He reached out to stop her. “Make sure Jo gets full rations from here on out. And, let the other girls know about the failing Nanos. We don’t need six pregnancies at once.”
She looked at the hand on her shoulder, and then up into his eyes. “Well, not all of us girls have to worry about the Nanos failing, do we?”
The look of shock and pain in his eyes made her feel better. At least she wasn’t the only one cursing Captain Freeborn and his stupid order.
.o0o.
Erik inspected the cave, then smiled at Billy who had discovered it yesterday.
“Yes, this is excellent,” Erik said, as he stood at the entrance and stared out over the land around them. Green grass, a small stream, enough wood. Yes, this will do. The cave opening was about fifteen feet across, easily defendable. About thirty feet deep. Dark, dry, and safe. Perfect.
Turning to the group waiting at the bottom of the hill he said, “Make yourselves comfortable. This is as far as we go. We’ll be here a couple of months. At least until the Kairns start north again.”
A loud cheer of approval erupted from the group. Lifeless faces sprang into huge smiles as a sense of relief passed through them.
“Are you sure?” Nora asked as she lowered her pack.
Erik nodded. “They can’t go much further south. The mountains block them. The grass is green. They’ll stay here and fatten up before starting to migrate again. Heaven knows, we could use a rest. I’ll take a team out tomorrow. Hopefully, we can get more than one. Hell, maybe there are some fish in the stream. I’m getting tired of steak.”
She nodded, then ducked her head to enter the cave. He watched her go, silently sending up a prayer of thanks that she had been there. Her strength and determination went a long way to keeping everyone working together.
“Use the stretchers and sleds to build a fence to block the opening,” he told Jonathan. “Gene, take some people down to the trees and gather some wood. We need as much as you can get. Pile it up next to the fence.”
Hold them together, he told himself for the thousandth time. Just hold them together until the rescuers come.
Chapter Sixteen
Erik sat at the entrance of the cave and stared into the night. The silver moonlight let him see the Yark on the distant hill. Two more were down below in the bushes. Out of sight, waiting, watching.
They were becoming braver. Every time a party went out to hunt, the Yarks followed them, always ready to spring at the first sign of a relaxed guard. The constant pressure of knowing death was stalking a person became suffocating after a while.
“What you doing?” Nora asked, as she sat down next to him. He glanced over at her and smiled. She had made a Kairn hide into a vest and cut the legs off her coveralls, making shorts. Her long tanned legs stretched out in front of her. She looks sexy as hell, he thought. But, this woman would be sexy no matter what she wore.
“Tomorrow will be the six-month anniversary,” he said.
“Really, has it been that long? Although, sometimes, it seems like we’ve been here for six years.”
“I hope we can make another six months,” he said, glancing back over his shoulder at the people in the cave.
“We will,” she said, as if there was no doubt in the matter.
“I don’t know, Nora. We don’t have the knowledge we need, and it is taking too long to get it. Our ancestors spent generations to learn what they needed. Sometimes, I wonder if we will make it three more months. And, if those damn Yarks ever attack, it might be over in an afternoon.”
She looked up at him, then reached over and took his hand in hers. “We are doing all that we can do. You have kept them alive this long. You’ll get them there, to the end.”
“I don’t know,” he said, “it could be tomorrow or six years from now. Hell, Jo’s baby might be leading a hunting party before they get here.”
She smiled back up at him and continued to hold his hand. She knows me, he realized. She knows she just needs to let me vent and blow off steam. A few seconds with her and my world is good again.
A comfortable silence settled between them as they sat there, shoulder to shoulder. Both of them looking out into the dark.
“What was your life like, at home?” he asked her suddenly.
She paused for a moment, studying him as if trying to understand what he wanted. At last, she shrugged her shoulders.
“The truth?” she asked. “It was pretty good. Parties, two loving parents, two brothers, and three sisters. Everything I could ever want purchased with my father’s money. My future mapped out for me. College, marriage to an approved man, children.”
She paused, as if she wanted to say more, but then bit her lip and stared into the darkness.
He laughed, “You sound as if it wasn’t what you wanted.”
Nora nodded her head. “I guess it wasn’t. It was what they wanted for me. Not what I wanted.”
“What was that?” he asked. “Adventure? Rebellion?”
“No,” she said. “I wanted to do something that mattered. To succeed or fail because of me, not my family.”
“Well, you’ve done that and a lot more,” he said with an approving smile. “No matter what, Miss Nora Johnson, you can always say, you survived the Intrepid.”
“Maybe,” she said with a frown. “But, now I want more. I don’t think I can go back to that life. I’m not the same person. But, I don’t know what I want to do.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said, as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “You’ll figure it out.”
She was silent for a moment, then turned to look him in the eye. They held each other’s stare for a long minute, then slowly, he lowered his lips to hers. Nothing in the galaxy could have stopped him from kissing this woman at this moment. To hell with orders, to hell with expectations.
She melted into him as a small moan of pleasure escaped from between her lips. This was what was important, he realized, this woman, now. Nothing else mattered in this world or any other. His hands roamed, caressing. Her arms locked around his neck and pulled him in tighter. As if she was afraid he might disappear.
A soft scrape behind him abruptly brought him back to reality. A small cough from the cave made him pull back. Her lips tried to follow him, but he twisted to see Billy standing at the cave entrance.
The boy coughed again, “I’m sorry,” he said, his face twisted up in concern, as if he truly was worried about interrupting them. “It’s my watch, I didn’t want you thinking I was late.”
“No. That’s okay,” Erik said, as he jumped up and backed away. What had he almost done? He had become so lost that he had almost taken her there, at the entrance of the cave. She didn’t deserve that. Hell, she deserved a prince on a white horse, not some lowly navy spacer. A man with a hard past and no future.
Nora looked up at him as if he had hurt her. His pulling away had left her wanting and upset. The pain that ran through his heart wouldn’t be eased. Her being disappointed in him had to be the worst thing ever.
“Anything to report?” Billy asked, as he looked across the valley.
Erik fought to bring his attention back to his duties. “Um ... Yes, a Yark across the way and two more down in the bushes. They’re keeping their distance, nothing to worry about.”
Billy nodded and kept his eyes focused on the far hill. He was obviously not looking at Nora, not wanting to embarrass her.
Nora took the cue and scurried back into the cave. She shot Erik a confused look for a second but then disappeared into the back of the cave. His heart fell. He had failed her somehow.
“You’ve got the watch,” Erik said as he patted the boy on the back. Turning he returned to his pallet and tried to grab some sleep. His mind refused to rest thought, all he could think of were the taste of Nora’s lips. The curve of her hip under his hand and the strength she gave him when she was in his arms.
Sighing he tossed and turned until at last sleep cla
imed him.
.o0o.
A scream from outside the cave pulled Erik from a dream of soft curves and rifles that could kill at a hundred yards.
He was up, a spear in his hand and at the entrance before anyone else had barely stirred.
Billy was down, being dragged across the rocks by two Yarks, each of them held a leg in their massive jaws.
Erik didn’t think, didn’t plan. All he could do was react, jumping from the entrance he raced after them. If they got him into the bushes, they’d never get him back. The thought of Jo’s baby growing up without a father jumped to the front of his mind, but he pushed it away. Not now.
His body moved without conscious thought. Gripping the spear, he charged.
Both Yarks dropped their prize and twisted to face him. Erik fainted at the one on the right, the lunged at the left one. Placing a foot on either side of Billy he stood astride the boy and kept the Yarks from attacking him.
Movement off to the left drew his attention. More Yarks. A dozen of them. His heart fell to his knees. How was he going to get out of this? He wondered.
The right Yark charged. Erik shoved the spear towards him, keeping him at bay.
They’re keeping me occupied, he realized. Keeping me penned down until their brothers could get in behind him and finish him off.
Twisting, he lunged to the left, connecting with the shoulder of the slobbering beast. A small yelp made his soul soar with pleasure. He’d take a few of them with him, he thought, as he twisted to face the other.
A scrape of stone, let him know the others were getting behind him. Turning, he saw them approaching cautiously. They’d long ago learned the danger of the spear.
The circle grew smaller. His insides clenched up into a tight ball. This was it, six months. That was how long he would live on Intrepid. He’d never be with Nora. He’d never get a chance to build a memorial to the crew.
The Yark on the right charged him, his companions quickly joining. One of them, he would never know which, scraped a set of claws across his temple. He felt a burning sensation explode inside his head, but he didn’t have time to think. All he could do was react. Lunge, parry, shove, and punch.